Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono decided to ring in National Children's Day on Friday by giving a speech to hundreds of children about pornography.

At the event at the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah theme park, Yudhoyono called on parents to think about why recent sex video scandals had grabbed the national spotlight and how they could work to prevent their children from being negatively affected by the scandals.

"I want to highlight a tragedy, the moral tragedy that occurred recently in the form of the pornographic videos," he told the hundreds of children and parents who attended the event.

"What lesson can we learn from it, who should be held responsible, and how do we ensure it never happens again? The answer is something that I have said previously: we need parents to provide more guidance, schools to provide the right education, and the state to enforce strict and proper laws.

"Let's always keep this incident in mind, and introspect on why such a tragedy was allowed to happen."

The leaked videos, purportedly featuring a pop singer and two TV presenters, have had some child rights activists seething over the setting of "a poor moral standard for the nation's youth and encouraging them to engage in casual sex."

Yudhoyono previously told a council of Islamic clerics that he was "ashamed of what has happened," and called on police and prosecutors to take legal action over the sex-tape scandal.

On Thursday, Communications and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring, who has long campaigned against online porn, announced a blanket ban on offending Web sites ahead of the start of the holy month of Ramadhan next month.

Yudhoyono also used Friday's speech to call on parents to better protect their children from exploitation, discrimination and "misleading social interaction and bad behavior."

"We must remember that a child's education begins at home. It's the responsibility of the parents to guide them toward the right path," he said. "Parents should also be responsible for forming a child's personality, including their values, ethics and behavior."

The president said it was imperative that adults set a good example for children to emulate. "It is important that the values they learn at home and in school are reflected in daily life."

Incongruity could lead children to not trust adult authority figures, Yudhoyono went on. "Public officials are expected to set a proper moral example, but it is the responsibility of everyone as we strive to become a highly civilized society," he said.

Activists demand thorough probe into student's death

Jakarta Post - July 23, 2010

Jakarta – Working People's Association (PRP) activists demanded police order a thorough investigation into the death of a university student in Garut, West Java, who died Monday after being shot in the head.

Garut Police said Thursday they found Herman with his friend, First Brig. Sofyan, playing Russian roulette at a boarding room. There were two other people in the room, including the tenant of the room, Lia.

"There were four chambers in the gun. They left one bullet in," Garut Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Amur Chandra was quoted as saying by news portal tribunnews.com. Sofyan was first to fire and he hit Herman, he added.

The PRP, however, questioned the police story. They said Herman, a National Students' League for Democracy (LMND) activist, staged a rally alongside locals at a PT Chevron Geothermal Indonesia plant in Garut to demand welfare in the area where energy giant Chevron operated.

Amur said his office would punish Sofyan for playing with his gun.

Woman seeking help from SBY for gas explosion child told no entry

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran – A woman from Bojonegoro, East Java, whose toddler son suffered severe burns from a 3kg-gas cylinder explosion came to the State Palace to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and to ask for help financing her son's medical treatment.

Susi Hariyani, 29, came to the State Palace on Monday afternoon with her four-and-a-half-year old son, Rido Januar. Rido was terribly disfigured in a gas cylinder explosion on March 27.

Unfortunately for Susi, she was left broken-hearted when she was told that she could not meet with the president. Susi said she was desperate for help because her son needs plastic surgery, such was the extent of the damage to her son's face and torso.

"My son suffered burns to his face, arms and legs. I can only ask the government for help – I don't know where else to go," she said between sobs. "I've tried to enter the State Palace but they said I couldn't. Who will help me if my government and the President won't?"

Rido, whose face and arms are still covered in blistered burn scars, cried in her arms and begged his mother to leave. Susi has been staying with her younger sibling in Tangerang, waiting for the opportunity to get to see the president but has so far been unsuccessful.

Susi's husband works in Bandung, West Java and he is currently trying to obtain Public Health Insurance, or Jamkesmas. "My husband is in Bandung trying to process the Jamkesmas but it's not finished yet. We don't have the money to seek treatment without it," she said.

The explosion happened in a boarding house. "I didn't know there was any gas leakage. That morning I turned on the stove and then it exploded. I rent a room, it's small but I sleep there and cook there. My son was still sleeping when it happened," she said.

She said that the East Java government had helped with the initial treatment but her son still needed further follow-up plastic surgery. "I only want my son to recover, that's all any mother would want, and that's why I'm here," she said.

SBY stuck in a jam over motorcade

Jakarta Post - July 19, 2010

Dina Indrasafitri, Jakarta – Following public protests over daily jams caused by his motorcade, the President is considering travelling to work by helicopter or moving into Merdeka Palace.

Presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said Yudhoyono took the recent public complaints seriously.

"The President is taking in all of the suggestions, but it will take time to analyze the situation before we can make the best decision," Julian told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview on Sunday.

Yudhoyono currently lives at his private residence in Cikeas, an upscale housing complex near Bogor. It takes him around 45 minutes to get to his office on a normal day when traffic is light.

Last week, Kompas daily published a letter of complaint from a resident, Hendra N.S, who lives in a neighborhood not far from Yudhoyono.

Hendra said he had been mistreated by one of the presidential security guards when the motorcade was about to overtake him on a busy road.

He said the escort officers had given confusing instructions, ordering him to move out of the way before banging on the hood of his car.

The letter triggered more angry protests from the public, with some suggesting the President should stop going back and forth from Cikeas every day. Others advised he take a helicopter so as not to make Jakarta's traffic problems worse. The roads between Cikeas and the city, including the tollway, are notoriously busy.

News portal Kompas.com quoted legislator Ganjar Pranowo saying the President should remain in the palace during the week to avoid traffic disruptions and to improve his work efficiency.

Julian, however, said Yudhoyono spent a considerable amount of time at the palace. "[He spends] at least three days [a week] there... sometimes he even stays over the weekend." Julian said.

Most of Yudhoyono's journeys to and from Cikeas were made late at night or very early in the morning, he said. "[Yudhoyono] goes home because he has other things to do outside his national duties... which include family meetings."

Most of the time Yudhoyono did not allow for streets leading to the palace to be blocked to clear the way for his motorcade, and requested that only one route be dedicated for the purpose, Julian said.

In fact, before the letter was published, Yudhoyono had requested that the line of convoys to be shortened, "but sometimes other people join his convoys".

There were several "security considerations" regarding the road closures and convoys, which include armored cars and a medical unit.

Darmaningtyas from the Indonesian NGO on Transport Issues (Instran) said officials' penchant for convoys and road closures denied citizens their rights.

"An official's function is to serve the people... the palace is a place for the President, so he should stay there and go to Cikeas on holidays only," he said.

According to Darmaningtyas, if each time an official convoy went past roads needed to be closed for five minutes, Jakarta's residents were losing a massive amount of time while officials whizzed past.

Yudhoyono's Cabinet has more than 35 ministers and, as with the President, most use convoys and road closures when travelling on official business.

SBY's Philippines counterpart, Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, meanwhile, is known for his controversial choice to experience the same traffic congestion other people must face in Manila.

Darmaningtyas dismissed the idea of using a helicopter. "Who would pay for that? The public should not be burdened," he said.

Aceh

Banda Aceh's women caught out in sharia raids

Jakarta Post - July 22, 2010

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Aceh's Sharia Police censured hundreds of women for wearing tight pants and jeans in Wednesday's raid in Banda Aceh.

Those who were caught in the raids had their names recorded and were made to sign a statement saying they would not repeat the offense against the dress code by wearing "sexually arousing" tight pants in public because it is forbidden under sharia law.

"The raids are aimed at minimizing sharia violations in Aceh, especially ahead of the Ramadan Islamic fasting month," Samsuddin, the Sharia Police's Enforcement and Violation division head, said.

As many as 23 regencies and municipalities in the province are expected to follow suit before Ramadan starts on Aug. 11.

The local authority launched the crackdown as a deterrent for women who failed to comply to the Islamic dress code by not wearing head scarves and wearing tight pants, according to Samsuddin.

Many women protested the authoritarian crackdown. "Why do the officers care about the way we dress? Don't they have anything better to do than worry over women's attire," said Leli, one woman caught in the raid.

Some housewives who were dressed casually just to walk their children to school were also stopped by the religious police. "I was afraid the officers were going to cut off my pants," said housewife Aisyah.

She expressed concern the raids in Banda Aceh would be the same as those conducted in West Aceh, the only regency in the province to ban women from wearing pants.

Women wearing tight pants in West Aceh risk having their pants cut and are forced to switch to long, loose-fitting skirts.

In Banda Aceh, women are urged to wear loose-fitting pants. "Please wear loose-fitting pants that hide the body's contour," Samsuddin said.

Three Americans told to leave Aceh for converting locals

Jakarta Globe - July 21, 2010

Nurdin Hasan, Aceh – Authorities in West Aceh have told three Americans accused of converting local Muslims to leave the district for their own safety, while three of their alleged converts have been placed in an Islamic boarding school for "education," an official said on Wednesday.

Mulya Agus, a spokesman for the West Aceh administration, told the Jakarta Globe that the three Americans were Kelly Green Jordan, Robin Kay Jordan and their daughter, MacKenrie Claire Jordan. They were told to leave the district on Tuesday.

"We are not evicting them, but to prevent further conflict, because local people might get mad at their activities, we are telling them to leave," he said. "So we are actually saving them from possible public anger."

Aceh is the only province allowed by law to implement partial Shariah law, and West Aceh has been particularly aggressive in enforcing Islamic mores, including banning tight clothes and jeans for women.

Kelly Green Jordan and her husband were reportedly working with a social foundation in Meulaboh, the district capital. Mulya did not provide any information on the foundation itself.

Mulya said locals began questioning the Jordans's activities after three people in Samatiga subdistrict, about 15 kilometers from Meulaboh, converted to Christianity. The three new converts have lived in West Aceh since after the 2004 tsunami.

"After receiving a report about the alleged missionary activities, the West Aceh Ulema Council [MPU] conducted an investigation and confirmed that three people in the district had converted to another religion," Mulya said.

"We even have a tape showing the three of them being baptized. When they were questioned by the MPU they claimed that they were baptized under the influence of hypnosis," he said

The converts, whose identities were not given, have since been placed in an Islamic boarding school for education, he added.

Teuku Ahmad Dadek, head of the West Aceh Public Order Office, said that during the investigation by the MPU, some residents had pelted the house rented by the Jordans with stones, forcing them to move to a hotel.

"The three of them were then taken to the Meulaboh Immigration Office," he said. "We only wanted to protect them from public anger." The family has reportedly since left Aceh on a chartered plane.

Dadek said his office was still collecting evidence about the Jordans's activities in West Aceh, including a videotape confiscated from the family.

"They are in Medan, North Sumatra now, but they won't be allowed to live in West Aceh, or any city in this province, again because they have caused so much worry among residents," he said.

West Papua

In Papua, a threat by OPM separatists

Jakarta Globe - July 23, 2010

Banjir Ambarita & Nurfika Osman, Jayapura – The separatist Free Papua Movement, which has been engaged in a low-profile armed resistance against the Indonesian presence in the province since the 1960s, on Thursday threatened to step up attacks against the government until Papuan independence was granted.

"We, the people of Papua, remain steadfast in our initial stand to safeguard the dignity of the Papuan nation by gaining independence," Anton Tabuni, secretary general of the group, known as the OPM, said in a video released to journalists in Papua.

"The people of Papua will continue to struggle to secede from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia," continued Tabuni, who claimed to be speaking on behalf of OPM commander Goliat Tabuni.

The video was released a day after armed men believed to be from the OPM ambushed and burned a convoy of three trucks carrying diesel oil and food in Pagargom, in the Tingginambut area of Puncak Jaya district. "Whether civilians, plainclothes or uniformed security members, we will rid Papua of them," Tabuni said.

The video also showed an OPM gathering in Tingginambut, believed to be a congress held by the organization on June 31. The meeting ended in a renewed resolve to fight for independence.

Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wahyono declined to comment, saying police had yet to see the video. "We have not watched the video, so we cannot comment on it," Wahyono said. "But we are going to investigate it."

Adrianna Elizabeth, a researcher of conflict areas at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said the government should not dismiss the threat, even though the OPM was not a heavily armed organization.

"Even if the social and economic conditions of Papuans improve, the OPM will always be there because it wants its political demands to be met," Adrianna said, adding that OPM's vast network had spread throughout urban and rural areas in the territory.

"Human rights are not being upheld in the province and we should also realize that the Papuan autonomy law has not been well implemented," she said, citing possible reasons for the persistence of separatist aspirations in the province.

In a report released in March, the global think tank International Crisis Group warned that some elements of OPM were becoming increasingly militant.

It also said OPM and the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) – a group with its roots in the student movement – were likely behind the deadly attacks last year on workers near a mine run by a unit of Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold.

The ICG recommended broadening talks between Jakarta and Papuan leaders to address political, historical and economic grievances.

Meanwhile, police in pursuit of the perpetrators of Wednesday's attack in Pagargom are concentrating on Tingginambut, known to be home to OPM's central headquarters.

"Since [Thursday] morning, our officers have been hunting them, especially in the Tingginambut area," Wahyono said, adding that a thick fog and the mountainous, thickly forested terrain were hindering the operation.

Wahyono said there were no plans yet to send reinforcements since the force already in Puncak Jaya was considered to be adequate. Papua Police have already deployed about 100 members of the elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) to Tingginambut.

OPM will continue to struggle for independence

Bintang Papua - July 22, 2010

A decision that was adopted at a recent congress of the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) along with its armed wing, Tentara Papua Nasional/TPN, made it clear that the organisation would continue to struggle for independence, that is to say, for secession from the Republic of Indonesia.

The congress was held before members of the organisation attacked and burnt three vehicles transporting fuels and foodstuffs in Tingginambut

"We remain firmly committed to our original purpose, to defend our self-respect and struggle for independence," said Anton Tabuni, secretary-general of the OPM in a press release conveyed in a video sent to journalists in Papua.

Anton Tabuni said that he was speaking on behalf of the supreme commander of the OPM, Goliat Tabuni, who will continue to attack the Indonesian security forces and all other components who are trying to thwart their struggle, regardless of the fact that the Indonesian president is sending ever more troops to Papua.

"We will fight them, whoever they may be, including civilians appearing as a cover for the security forces; we will eradicate them all from the soil of Papua."

The video also included scenes of the OPM congress in progress, which was held in Tingginambut, Puncak Jaya, which opened with a traditional ceremony and the flying of three Morning Star flags.

Anton Tabuni also called on all Papuans to support the independence struggle, stressing that it should not be delayed any longer. The Indonesian security forces should surrender and leave Papua, he said. Independence is the right of all peoples.

This ceremony occurred in Tingginambut on 31 (sic) June) 2010

A week ago, the military commander of Papua. Major-General Hotma Marbun, and the chief of police, Inspector-General Bekto Suprapto, flew to Tingginambut, and called on Goliat Tabuni and his supporters to surrender. However, the OPM people have continued with their attacks, regardless of the call to surrender from the army and police chiefs.

Meanwhile, deputy governor Alex Hesegem has said that considering the efforts being made to secure prosperity for the Papuan people, it is useless to keep talking about independence. "Stop dreaming about independence so as to be able to enjoy prosperity within the fold of the Indonesian Republic."

He said that they must go down to the kampungs and develop Papua, starting today. He said that with the help of the Respek programme, the self-respect of the Papuan people must be strengthened. This is the way to achieved independence, through better living conditions and the self-sufficiency for the people in the kampungs

"Instead of shouting your heads off in other countries, calling for independence, we should all go back to Papua, back to our kampungs, making full use of the talents endowed upon us by God, to build our kampungs".

[Abridged in translation.]

Government eyes Papua as pulp and paper production base

Jakarta Post - July 21, 2010

The Industry Ministry said Tuesday that the government planned to expand the pulp and paper industry to eastern Indonesia, including Papua, because of its vast tracts of forest.

"Currently, only western Indonesia has pulp and paper factories," Industry Minister MS Hidayat said after opening the April Technology Center (ATC) in Pelalawan, Riau.

"In future, we plan to expand the development of the pulp and paper industry to eastern Indonesia," he said, adding that the expansion would to help Indonesia increase pulp and paper exports.

"Currently, PT Riau Andalan Pulp and Paper [RAPP] exports 2.24 million tons of pulp worth US$867,364 and 4.09 million tons of paper valued at $3.06 million per year," he said.

At the event, Hidayat urged pulp and paper producers not to damage forests to avoid criticism by foreign NGOs.

"The government will help all pulp and paper producers as long as they do not damage forests as foreign NGOs have claimed," he said. "We will help pulp and paper companies as long as their production processes run properly."

Hidayat also asked stakeholders not to be influenced by critical factual reports by NGOs that could affect the investment climate and weaken the competitiveness of the local industry.

He said Indonesia, as one of the world's biggest pulp and paper producers, should defend its positions against negative campaigns by foreign NGOs.

Indonesia is the ninth-largest pulp producer and the eleventh- largest paper producer in the world.

Indonesia has 14 pulp manufacturers with a total annual capacity to produce 7.9 million tons and 81 paper manufacturers with a total production capacity of 12.17 million tons.

Pulp production reached 6.52 million tons and paper production 9.31 million tons in 2009.

Hidayat said the pulp and paper industry faced a few challenges this year, such as a lack of adequate industrial plantation forests and technology. (map)

Military ties

Rights groups slam US-Indonesia ties

Agence France Presse - July 23, 2010

Human rights groups reacted angrily on Friday to the US military's resumption of ties with Indonesian special forces accused of ongoing human rights violations in the young democracy.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates announced on Thursday in Jakarta that the United States would resume ties with Kopassus, an elite unit said to have been responsible for atrocities and mass repression under the late dictator Suharto.

Local rights group the West Papua Advocacy Team said that Kopassus soldiers "continue to repress peaceful protest... routinely intimidate, threaten and accost Papuans who non- violently resist denial of fundamental rights".

In a statement the group said a sweeping Kopassus anti-rebel operation in remote areas of Papua province has forced thousands of villagers to flee into the forest, where they lack food, shelter and medical care.

The US administration has been seeking to build relations with Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, which has rapidly transformed in the past decade into a civilian-led democracy. Gates said links with Kopassus, which took a prominent role in past operations in East Timor, Aceh and Papua, would be limited at first. The US will only expand cooperation if the unit, and the Indonesian military as a whole, undertake reforms, he said.

American forces had broken off ties with the Kopassus in 1999 under a law banning cooperation with foreign troops implicated in rights abuses.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International were also sharply critical of the decision to renew ties. "It's hard to see the administration's decision as anything other than a victory for abusive militaries worldwide," said HRW's Asia advocacy director Sophie Richardson.

"The Indonesian justice system rarely vigorously investigates or prosecutes anyone from the military, so forces like Kopassus will likely still be able to commit abuses with impunity and still meet the Obama administration's standards."

Amnesty International said that the decision sent "the wrong message in a country where mass and severe human rights violations have taken place in an atmosphere of impunity".

Indonesian authorities have offered no official comment since Gates's announcement.

US, Indonesia retie a controversial knot

Inter Press Service - July 23, 2010

Jim Lobe, Washington – Thursday's announcement in Jakarta that Washington will resume training for the Indonesian military's controversial special forces unit Kopassus has been denounced by human-rights groups and two key lawmakers here.

The announcement – which lifts a ban on cooperation with Kopassus dating back to 1999 – was made by visiting Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who has continued efforts launched by the administration of president George W Bush to restore full bilateral military ties between the two nations.

"I was pleased to be able to tell the president that as a result of Indonesian military reforms over the past decade, the ongoing professionalization of the TNI [Indonesian Armed Forces], and recent actions by the Ministry of Defense to address human-rights issues, the United States will begin a gradual, limited program of security cooperation activities with the Indonesian Army Special Forces," Gates told reporters after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"I noted to the president that these initial steps will take place within the limits of US law and do not signal any lessening of the importance we place on human rights and accountability," he went on. "What's more, our ability to expand upon these initial steps will depend upon continued implementation of reforms within Kopassus and TNI as a whole."

That caveat, however, did not appease rights groups that have long regarded Kopassus, including some of its highest-ranking officers, as responsible for some of the most notorious mass killings, assassinations, disappearances and other serious abuses committed in Southeast Asia's most populous nation – notably in the former East Timor, Papua and Aceh, over the past 20 years.

"Amnesty International is disappointed by the decision that US forces will train the Kopassus unit," said T Kumar, the director for international advocacy of the US branch of Amnesty International (AIUSA). "It sends the wrong message in a country where mass and severe human-rights violations have taken place in an atmosphere of impunity."

"The [Barack] Obama administration has just failed a key test," said Sophie Richardson, Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). "This is not the way to encourage reform with a military that has yet to demonstrate a genuine commitment to accountability for serious human-rights abuses."

"This decision rewards Kopassus for its intransigence over abuses and effectively betrays those in Indonesia who have fought for decades for accountability and justice," she noted, adding that Jakarta had not only failed to remove the very few Kopassus soldiers who had been convicted of serious rights violations from the military, but had also recently promoted officers linked by credible evidence to past abuses to top Kopassus positions.

The announcement was also denounced as "premature" by the Senator Russell Feingold, the former chair of the senate's Asia sub- committee and as "deeply regret[able]" by Senator Patrick Leahy, who wrote the law banning US aid and training for any foreign military unit credibly suspected of major abuses.

"Although the Indonesian Ministry of Defense has taken some positive steps, numerous problems remain, including allegations of recent abuses," Feingold said in a statement. "Further actions are needed before we can be reasonably satisfied that Kopassus, and the Indonesian armed forces more broadly, have become a reformed institution accountable to international human-rights standards and the rule of law."

"The 'gradual, limited program of security cooperation activities' described by Secretary Gates should certainly not be seen as wiping the slate clean for Kopassus – that is something that only a full accounting of the past can do," Feingold added.

Brutally effective

Thursday's announcement constitutes the latest development in what has been a gradual rapprochement between the Pentagon and the TNI. Washington first began heavily supporting Indonesia's military in the late 1950s.

Between then and the period that followed the fall of president Suharto in 1998, the army was seen, especially by the Pentagon, as the one effective – if corrupt and often brutal – national institution in an archipelago that spreads across thousands of kilometers and straddles key sea lanes and shipping "chokepoints".

After a massacre by Indonesian troops of more than 100 peaceful demonstrators in East Timor in 1991, the US Congress cut off Indonesia's access for certain kinds of US military training and "lethal" equipment.

When the TNI, Kopassus and their local auxiliaries rampaged through East Timor after its electorate voted to secede from Indonesia in 1999, then-president Bill Clinton severed all remaining ties with the TNI, but then quietly restored contacts the following year. Some 1,400 civilians died in that mayhem for which no soldier has ever been tried or convicted.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, the George W Bush administration tried to circumvent congressionally imposed restrictions by providing some assistance, although not to Kopassus, through a counter-terrorism program.

By highlighting the operations of al-Qaeda operatives – responsible for a 2002 bombing in Bali that killed nearly 200 people – in Indonesia, the administration made slow but steady progress in restoring ties over the following years, including by lifting the arms embargo.

Amid growing concern about China's influence and increasing naval strength in the region, however, the Pentagon has pushed hard to restore full military ties with Jakarta, including with Kopassus. But it has reportedly received some resistance from Indonesia specialists in the US State Department and the National Security Council.

The latter, like the rights groups, argued that Kopassus continued to commit serious abuses, especially in Papua, and remained largely unaccountable to civilian authority. In response to US demands over the past few months, Jakarta shifted at least three Kopassus officers previously convicted by military courts of abuses to other positions within the TNI.

In addition, the defense minister told an English-language newspaper that soldiers found by a military tribunal to have committed genocide or crimes against humanity would be tried by a civilian court.

"The US government appears to have considered these steps satisfactory to ensure future accountability," HRW complained on Thursday, adding that "the decision to start training Kopassus now risks undermining the limited progress towards professionalism that the Indonesian military has made thus far".

Indeed, in April this year, Colonel Nugroho Widyo Utomo, who in 1998 reportedly played a key role in creating and arming the militias that later carried out much of the violence in East Timor the following year, was appointed deputy commander of Kopassus.

Pentagon officials told reporters in Washington that initial contacts with Kopassus would be quite limited and that, in any event, the State Department would vet any members of the force before they could receive training.

Leahy said he expected Gates to follow through on his pledge to condition Washington's cooperation with Kopassus on the implementation of real reforms, including prosecuting "past and future crimes" committed by its members. "I deeply regret that before starting down the road of re-engagement, our country did not obtain and Kopassus did not accept the necessary reforms we have long sought. But a conditional toe in the water is wiser at this stage than diving in."

"The United States and Indonesia share important interests, and I have sought a way forward that is consistent with our interests and our values. I hope that will become possible," Leahy said.

But rights activists remain doubtful. "For years, the US provided military training and other assistance to Kopassus, and when the US was most involved, Kopassus crimes were at their worst," said John Miller, national coordinator of the East Timor Action Network. "While this assistance improved the Indonesian military's deadly skills, it did nothing to improve its behavior."

[Jim Lobe's blog on US foreign policy can be read at www.lobelog.com.]

US Senator opposes the reinstatement of ties with Indonesia

Agence France Presse - July 23, 2010

Washington – A key United States senator voiced regret Thursday at the resumption of ties with Indonesian special forces and said the unit must expel officers linked to abuses before there could be greater cooperation.

Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the author of the law that bans US support to foreign militaries that violate human rights, said Indonesia's Kopassus "remains unrepentant, essentially unreformed and unaccountable."

"I deeply regret that before starting down the road of re- engagement, our country did not obtain and Kopassus did not accept the necessary reforms we have long sought," said Leahy, a member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, visiting Jakarta on Thursday, announced that the United States would resume ties with Kopassus, an elite unit involved in Indonesia's major past operations including the occupation of East Timor.

The Obama administration has been seeking to build relations with Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, which has rapidly transformed in the past decade into a civilian-led democracy.

But Gates said relations with Kopassus would be limited at first and that the United States would only expand cooperation if the unit, and the Indonesian military as a whole, undertake reforms.

"As far as I am concerned, that includes suspending any Kopassus officers who have been credibly linked to abuses, and pledging to cooperate in prosecutions of past and future crimes," Leahy said.

Leahy, who heads the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that authorizes funding for foreign operations, was relieved that Gates did not announce full-fledged cooperation.

"A conditional toe in the water is wiser at this stage than diving in," Leahy said. "The United States and Indonesia share important interests, and I have sought a way forward that is consistent with our interests and our values. I hope that will become possible," he said.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said the administration had discussed the Kopassus decision with US lawmakers and explained that Indonesia has made strides in human rights.

"That said, we're going in with our eyes open," Crowley said. "Kopassus has a dark past. We recognize that. We're going to be insisting that Indonesia live up to its stated commitments."

"It's not a slippery slope," Crowley said. "We think that this engagement can in fact help to further improve the performance of the Indonesian military."

US to resume ties with Indonesia's special forces

Associated Press - July 22, 2010

Niniek Karmini, Jakarta – The United States announced Thursday it will resume cooperation with Indonesia's special forces after ties were severed more than a decade ago over alleged human rights abuses by the commando unit.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the announcement after meeting with Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday in the capital of Jakarta – Indonesia had said it wanted the United States to reconsider resuming joint training.

The decision will be seen as a victory for the Indonesian military, which has said it made great strides in improving its human rights record.

Indonesia's special forces were accused of major abuses through the 1990s in the provinces of Papua and Aceh and the former Indonesian province of East Timor, which has since become independent. The US cut ties with the special forces under a 1997 law that banned US training for foreign military units accused of human rights violations. The ban can be lifted if there have been substantial measures to bring culprits to justice.

"I was pleased to be able to tell the president that as a result of Indonesian military reform over the past decade... and recent actions taken by the Ministry of Defense to address human rights issues, the United States will begin measured and gradual programs of security cooperation activities with the Indonesian Army Special Forces," Gates said at a news conference.

"This initial step will take place within the limit of US law and does not signal any lessening of the importance we place on human rights and accountability," he added.

Yudhoyono guaranteed that there would be no more rights abuses by the Indonesian military.

"I'll guard the Indonesian military reform and ensure that what happened 10 or 20 years ago will not happen again," the president was quoted as saying by Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who also attended the meeting with Gates.

Washington severed all ties with the Indonesian military in 1999 after troops rampaged through East Timor when it voted to secede from Indonesia. The US lifted that overall ban in 2005, but kept its restrictions against the special forces – known as Kopassus.

"Our ability to expand after this initial step will depend on continued implementation of reforms with Kopassus and (the Indonesian military) as a whole," Gates said.

International rights groups have said members of Kopassus were linked to the disappearance of student activists in 1997 and 1998 and were never held accountable. But Gates said that he and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were both convinced that rapprochement was "the right thing to do at this time."

[Associated Press writer Joe Cochrane contributed to this report.]

US lifts ban on Indonesian commando unit

New York Times - July 22, 2010

Elisabeth Bumiller, Jakarta – The Defense Department said on Thursday that it was lifting a ban of more than a decade on contact with the elite Indonesian special forces, Kopassus, and would take beginning steps to train the commando unit, which has been condemned by human rights groups for past killings of civilians and widespread abuses.

Pentagon officials made the announcement as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates arrived in Jakarta to meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to officially inform him of the decision, reached after intensive internal debate among the Pentagon, the White House and the State Department.

"These initial steps will take place within the limits of US law and do not signal any lessening of the importance we place on human rights and accountability," Mr. Gates told reporters at Istana, the presidential palace complex, after meeting with Mr. Yudhoyono. He called the steps "a measured and gradual program of security cooperation activities" with Kopassus.

The Pentagon had long pushed for the 1999 ban to be lifted, but there was resistance within the State Department and White House over the record of the group. Kopassus members were convicted of abducting student activists in 1997 and 1998 and for abuse that led to the 2001 death of a Papuan activist. Kopassus was also implicated in serious human rights abuses in Aceh Province and in East Timor before it gained independence in 2002.

Defense officials said that the group, believed to number about 5,000, had reformed enough in recent years that the United States saw advantages in working to bring what they described as further change. Kopassus has a limited role in fighting terrorism, which in Indonesia is chiefly the responsibility of the police, but it deploys overseas in peacekeeping operations and is the breeding ground for the leadership of the Indonesia military.

"It is a different unit than its reputation suggests," Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters traveling with Mr. Gates. "Clearly, it had a very dark past, but they have done a lot to change that."

Human Rights Watch, which has opposed renewed ties with Kopassus unless significant conditions were met, sharply criticized the decision.

"This is a development that will not just have ramifications in Indonesia," said Sophie Richardson, the Asia advocacy director of Human Rights Watch. "Every abusive military in the world will sit up and say if the United States is willing to go ahead and engage with Kopassus despite its failure to reform, why shouldn't the US engage with other abusive militaries?"

Defense officials said that the American military would have limited engagement with Kopassus to start, perhaps only in staff-to-staff meetings, and that there would be no immediate military training. They said that the Defense Department was not seeking funds from Congress for the renewed engagement with Kopassus.

In preparation for lifting the ban, Defense Department officials said they asked the Indonesian government in recent months to remove "less than a dozen" members of Kopassus who had been convicted of previous human rights abuses but were still part of the unit. Among those who recently left was Lt. Col. Tri Hartomo, who was convicted by an Indonesian military court in 2003 and served time in prison for abuse leading to the death of a Papuan activist, Theys Eluay.

Defense Department officials said that Colonel Hartomo was still a member of the Indonesian military, although not in Kopassus.

Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, who was implicated in a massacre in East Timor while he served in Kopassus, was appointed deputy defense minister in January, and remains there. Defense Department officials said the distinction for them was that General Sjamsoeddin was only implicated, not convicted.

Kopassus members who have been implicated in past abuses, but not convicted, will remain with the group, Defense Department officials said. The State Department will be in charge of vetting individual members of Kopassus before they can participate in training with the American military.

Defense Department officials said they had received assurances from the Indonesian government that any member of the group who was credibly accused of abuses from now on would be suspended, and that any member convicted of abuse would be removed.

Congress, under what is known as the Leahy law, for Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, bars the United States from training military units that are credibly believed to have engaged in human rights abuses, unless the units take steps to improve.

Politics & political parties

PKB in tug-of-war over securing seats in 2014

Jakarta Post - July 21, 2010

Jakarta – National Awakening Party (PKB) leaders are embroiled in a political tug-of-war over how to thwart major political parties' plans to double the parliamentary threshold in the 2014 elections.

The PKB membership has declined following a split by members who now carry the banner of the "Gus Dur PKB" and the Ulema National Awakening Party (PKNU), neither of which is recognized by the government.

Lily Chadijah Wahid, the sister of late former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, who is also a member of the PKB led by Muhaimin Iskandar, said Tuesday that it was important to bring the "Gus Dur PKB" and the PKNU back into the fold to ensure that the PKB had enough members to meet the proposed increase in the parliamentary threshold from 2.5 percent to 5 percent.

"The next parliamentary election is in 2014. Should they hold the congress in 2013, there would not be enough time to consolidate political power with the splinter groups," Lily told The Jakarta Post. "The party would most likely be doomed if we didn't consolidate," she said.

Lily said if such a merger failed, she would prefer to join another political party that shared the same nationalist ideology as the PKB – the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI- P).

The 2008 PKB national congress in Ancol, North Jakarta, had scheduled the next congress for 2013. Meanwhile, Gus Dur PKB members are announcing their own congress this year, as mandated in 2005. The breakaway faction is led by Yenny Wahid, the daughter of Gus Dur.

Due to prolonged infighting, the PKB has found itself in a mess in the national political arena after it garnered less than 5 percent of the votes in the 2009 election, down from 10 percent in 2004.

With heated debate among members of the House of Representatives over a plan to increase the parliamentary threshold to 5 percent, the party is embroiled in more bickering about political maneuvers to fight for political survival.

Muhaimin, who is also the manpower and transmigration minister, has welcomed the idea of forming a political confederation with the National Mandate Party (PAN) to secure parliamentary seats in the upcoming legislative elections.

"The PAN's plan to form a confederation is a very positive step. The PKB fully supports it," he said.

PAN legislator Muhammad Najib said the PAN confederation was expected to also serve as a political umbrella for smaller political parties that would take part in the upcoming election, and whose cumulative votes were insufficient to meet the current 2.5 percent threshold.

"However, we haven't really discussed how the mechanism is going to work, or which parties would be accommodated by the confederation," he told the Post.

PKB legislator Effendi Choirie said the PKB had to reconcile with some Nadhlatul Ulama (NU) figures, who so far had been overlooked or ignored, in lieu of focusing on the confederation.

"The confederation is just a platform to accommodate the interests of some political elites from small parties that mostly don't have any political basis at the grass root levels," he said.

Coalition tense as parties upset with report card

Jakarta Post - July 17, 2010

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Tensions are rising within the coalition government as some ministers are dismayed by their poor grades in a recent appraisal sparking calls for a Cabinet reshuffle.

National Mandate Party (PAN) secretary-general Taufik Kurniawan said Friday the results of the evaluation should have been "strictly confidential" and should not released to the public.

Kurniawan directed his anger at Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, chief of the Presidential Work Unit for Development Monitoring and Control (UKP4), who announced the results.

"If the UKP4 set parameters for the evaluation, there would not have been any problems," said Taufik, who is also a House of Representatives deputy speaker. "They should have upheld the principle of transparency from the beginning," Taufik added.

Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar, who is also a PAN politician, is one of the three ministers in the media spotlight after Kuntoro announced last week that his ministry was among 10 ministries or state institutions given "red marks" for failing to meet the prioritized targets of the 2010 national development programs.

Other ministers under fire for "red marks" are Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring, a Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician, and Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, who claims no party affiliation.

Kuntoro also gave poor mid-year evaluation grades to the National Coordinating Agency for Land Surveys and Mapping (Bakosurtanal) and the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).

PKS deputy chairman Mahfudz Siddiq blamed poor performance in ministries and state institutions was a result of state budget constraints. "Why should there even be a mid-year evaluation? I've only heard of an evaluation after the first 100 days of a new government," Mahfudz said.

House Speaker Marzuki Alie, who a politician within President SBY's Democratic Party, said the evaluation reports should have been submitted to the President alone.

Marzuki said he rejected the idea that Yudhoyono would replace non-performing ministers, saying they needed more time to prove themselves because a half year was barely sufficient.

Calls for a Cabinet reshuffle call came from Golkar Party deputy chairman Priyo Budi Santoso, who later retracted his statements, saying he did not know who the poorly performing ministers were. Golkar is a member of the six-party ruling coalition.

University of Indonesia (UI) political observer Boni Hargens said SBY should not dismiss the possibility of a Cabinet reshuffle if some of his ministers are not performing.

He defended the UKP4's move to publicize the appraisal results, and said it was in line with the principle of transparency and good governance.

Electoral commission & elections

Violations and conflicts still mar local elections

Jakarta Post - July 22, 2010

With the ongoing second wave of local elections, will regular polls bring a better public awareness of voting and improved competence of election bodies, or merely a means to gain power by scores of aspiring governors, mayors, regents and legislators? Of the 244 local elections scheduled this year alone, 130 wrapped up in the past three months, raising widespread skepticism that little has improved since the first direct polls in 2005. Conflicts, violations and vote buying tainting the elections are shrouding the winners' legitimacy. The Jakarta Post's Ridwan Max Sijabat looks at the issue.

More than 90 of 130 local elections, including three gubernatorial races in Riau Islands, Central and South Kalimantan provinces, have wrapped up their results. Like scores of other elections, the results were nowhere close to the 2009 general elections, overwhelmingly won by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

In the local elections, all major political parties shared victory, with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) winning 14 polls, the Golkar Party nine and the Democratic Party six.

Despite the criticism, one winner is clear: local economies thrive during elections. In resource-rich regions, contenders and political parties have been known to spend up to Rp 20 billion each on media airtime, billboards, "charity" events, campaign logistics and transportation, and the more direct forms of vote buying. (JP/IRMAJP/IRMA)

Coverage of the elections has also brought with it the involvement of new and old militant groups attached to many political parties, all of which need uniforms, meals and "training" – and the involvement of businesspeople. As in the days of old, new election rules did not seem to deter politicians from using every loophole in written and unwritten rules on campaign funding. The election supervisory committees stood aside, saying the law didn't stipulate much on donations, and saying they lacked any authority to act. Also, contending incumbents were accused of using state facilities and conspiring with local election bodies in their bid for reelection. All this has meant most elections were infested by the use of intimidation, disputes and rioting.

Fortunately, most of the conflicting sides have accepted the final ruling of the Constitutional Court, at least there has been a mechanism to settle these teething pains.

Violent rioting triggered by election disputes rocked, among others, Bengkayang in West Kalimantan, Mojokerto in East Java, East Flores in East Nusa Tenggara, Sumbawa in West Nusa Tenggara, and Samosir in North Sumatra.

In the 92 elections between April and May this year, the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) listed 1,645 violations that mostly occurred during vote counting. More than 70 violations occurred during the candidates' screening and selection phase.

Hadar Gumay of the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) said "transactional politics" at the national level such as the investigation into the Bank Century bailout and the corruption scandals involving the National Police, were among the few issues that drew government attention away from the conflicts of local elections.

Jerry Sumampouw from the Committee for Indonesian Voters (Tepi) blamed different interpretations of the 2004 Regional Administration Law as well as a disregard for ethics in organizing elections, from the upgrading of voters' roll to the final counting.

"The election committees have apparently not learned from the 2005 local elections and the 2009 legislative and presidential elections. The government and the House have also declined to replace incompetent commissioners midway through their tenure," he said.

Most local polls were contested by four to 11 candidates, taken by some as a sign of greater appreciation of the significance of elections.

Hadar said the dismissal of a commissioner believed to favor a candidate from the Democratic Party "is a strong indication of the election commission's incompetence, from updating the voter list roll, candidate verification and vote counting".

While vote buying is hard to prove, Ray Rangkuti of the Indonesian Civilized Circle (Lima) said such bribes for votes could be minimized if the election commission banned candidates and political parties from all vote-buying activities – including the benign-looking distribution of basic goods, which politicians say their potential voters demand from all who seek their ballots.

Law blamed for partisan poll bodies

Jakarta Post - July 22, 2010

Ridwan Max Sijabat – One reason behind the various flaws in the election body – in the words of its own chief – is that the body is staffed by people with partisan agendas.

In a recent hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission II on home affairs, General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Hafiz Anshary blamed the rife elections troubles on the 2007 Election Law, which he said led to constraints on the supposedly impartial local elections committees.

"In setting up provincial and regental election commissions, the law has allowed regional administrations to nominate candidates, who are selected by provincial and regental legislatures.

"Most members of local polling bodies [KPUD] were candidates nominated by regional administrations and are actually loyal to the regional heads financing their operation," Hafiz said.

"Many KPUD officers are partial and make policies benefiting incumbent candidates in organizing local elections". He declined to comment on why the polling bodies have made different policies on similar election disputes in the regions.

Outcry over the KPU's incompetence has resulted in the proposed dismissal of commissioner Andi Nurpati.

She was accused of backing an aspiring regent whose running mate unexpectedly died, a controversial decision that led to the burning of a KPUD office and 18 boxes of ballot papers in Toli- toli, Central Sulawesi, in June. The Honorary Council also recommended Andi's dismissal when it was revealed that she had joined the Democratic Party's executive board.

Nur Hidayat Sardini, chairman of the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), said the "ad-hoc nature" of the board means it cannot work effectively.

"According to the law, it works as a linesman rather than a referee. It has the authority to report violations and conflicts to the people but no powers to process violations committed by contestants, incumbent candidates or election commissioners," Nur Hidayat said.

In the past three months, complaints over the elections were related to voter enrollment lists, inaccurate verification of candidates and vote counting – all of which led most defeated candidates to file lawsuits against the polling body at the Constitutional Court.

Bawaslu found suspected voter enrollment fraud and administrative violations among 1,600 violations it reported to the police in the last three months, but only a few have been processed.

Voter enrollment fraud was discovered in North Sumatra, Riau Islands, Central Kalimantan, Bali and East Nusa Tenggara. Instances included double registration of eligible voters and the registration of minors and deceased people to vote, while many newly enrolled voters were not listed.

Bawaslu revealed that instances of voter roll fraud were chiefly due to voter databases not being updated prior to the elections.

"Many regional polling bodies used the 2009 fixed voter rolls without updating them. In compliance with the law, the KPU has to update the 2009 fixed voter roll in coordination with the civil and birth registration office; and the list has to be verified with political parties and the government at all levels to ensure its accuracy," Nur Hidayat said.

The KPUD also failed to draw up regulations and guidelines on candidates' eligibility, allowing businesspeople suspected of corruption, inexperienced celebrities and the spouses of incumbents to run for office.

On top of this, with direct elections, businesses tend to invest in whoever is likely to win as early as possible, to ensure relatively easy arrangements for various permits once the new government has been established.

The absence of rigid election regulations from the KPU has also allowed for the rise of candidates criticized for allegedly abusing the system and "riding coattails" into power – as reflected in reports of the Kediri regent's wives and the incumbent Bone Mongalo regent's first wife, who ran for regent in the local elections.

The Bawaslu also found falsified university degrees belonging to aspiring mayors and regents; but the local KPUD took no action in disqualifying the candidates.

Human rights & law

Society in 'crisis,' warns agency as child abuse figures released

Antara News - July 23, 2010

Jakarta – The National Commission for Children's Protection says it had recorded 1,826 cases of violence, sexual assault and incest against children across Indonesia in the first five months of 2010 alone.

"The number of cases of violence against children, especially physical and sexual violence, has increased. In the first five months of 2010 alone, there were 1,826 cases," Arist Merdeka Sirait, chairman of the commission, Komnas Anak, said in Jakarta on Thursday.

Some 68 percent of the sexual abuse cases involved close relatives, he said.

For all of 2009, there were a total of 1,891 cases of violence against children, up from 1,626 cases in 2008, according to the commission's data.

Sirait said the cases reflected the failure of families to protect their children, citing examples of where a parent had burned their own baby and a mother broke her five-month-old baby's hand and leg.

"It's a social crisis and the violence does not make sense. Those who committed the violence were the ones who are supposed to be protecting the children," he said.

Children who are particularly prone to violence are street children and children from middle- and low-income families, Sirait said.

Film & television

Media industry takes sides over Metro porn suspension

Jakarta Globe - July 20, 2010

Ismira Lutfia & Putri Prameshwari, Indonesia – The Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) said in a statement on Tuesday that it regretted the recent suspension of private broadcaster Metro TV's morning "Headline News" program after it inadvertently aired uncensored scenes from a pornographic video.

Hendry CH Bangun, PWI's secretary general, said the suspension, which was ordered by the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), could potentially threaten press freedom in the country, a basic right guaranteed by the Constitution.

PWI said the broadcasting commission had overstepped its authority when it ordered "Headline News" off the air for seven days, in addition to requiring Metro to broadcast public apologies for three consecutive days, on three different occasions.

The association did, however, acknowledge that Metro had breached the 1999 Press Law and the journalistic code of ethics by allowing the pornographic material on the air.

Snippets from a pornographic video were aired during a Metro news story about police raid on an Internet cafe in Trenggalek, East Java, on June 14. The video was playing on one of the cafe's computer monitors in the background.

Metro has accepted the KPI's sanctions and apologized for the incident. The station's deputy chief editor, Makroen Sanjaya, has said that Metro has taken "corrective actions" in response to the incident.

PWI's statement comes just days after KPI issued a joint decision with the Press Council and House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees communications affairs, to categorize infotainment shows as "nonfactual" programs which, under the broadcasting code of conduct and program standards, are subject to censorship.

PWI is the only journalism association that recognizes employees of infotainment shows as journalists. Ilham Bintang, the owner of the "Cek & Ricek" infotainment show and tabloid, is the secretary of PWI's honors council.

The association's statement on Tuesday came with a "Press Freedom Manifesto 2010" signed by 50 media pundits and practitioners who "strongly protest and denounce" KPI's actions against Metro TV.

The signatories include broadcast and print media bigwigs and mass communications experts, as well as a current member and a former deputy chairman of the Press Council.

"This action [by the KPI] deprives the press of freedom. It also stains President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration, which has reiterated and guaranteed there should be no restriction to press freedom," the manifesto says.

However, Ade Armando, a communications expert at the University of Indonesia, was dismissive of the manifesto.

"The people behind it certainly did not read the laws and regulations before signing it," he said. "If someone protests that a TV station should not be punished after airing a sex scene at five in the morning, something is definitely wrong with their heads."

KPI chairman Dadang Rahmat Hidayat said that according to the broadcasting code of conduct and programming standards, the commission was well within its rights to suspend the Metro program.

"The public deserves to receive decent information" Dadang said, "and we are trying to protect that [mandate]."

He said the KPI was merely following regulations, and pointed out that the suspension was only for seven days.

"We understand there is a debate about whether what we did was censorship," he said. "We know Metro TV is a credible station, but still, as a broadcasting institution, it has to participate in improving the nation."

Environment & natural disasters

Scientists urge government to expand logging moratorium

Jakarta Globe - July 23, 2010

Fidelis E Satriastanti, Sanur, Bali – Conservationists from around the world have concluded their meeting in Bali with a declaration of support for Indonesia's limited logging moratorium, which they said must be implemented immediately.

The 2010 International Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation ended its five-day conference by adopting the Bali Declaration, which lauds Indonesia's recent bilateral agreement with Norway, signed in May.

Under that deal, Norway has pledged to fund $1 billion projects to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation in Indonesian forests. As part of the deal, Indonesia pledged a moratorium on new logging permits in peat forests.

The Bali Declaration urges the government to go a step further and restrict the expansion of plantations to areas without standing forests.

The declaration "is written [with] positive [intentions]," ATBC Conservation Committee co-chair William Laurance told the Jakarta Globe on Friday.

"We really try to emphasize a lot of positive issues in Indonesia and consider many challenges in Indonesia and in other tropical countries."

A conservation project as ambitious as Indonesia's would face many challenges, he said. "Obviously, there's going to be some industries that are not going to be happy about it," he said.

"There has already been opposition to the proposed moratorium on concessions for oil palm and wood and pulp plantations. We're arguing that the moratorium was absolutely crucial and also that the government should resist" the opposition.

The Bali Declaration also calls for a re-evaluation of all logging permits issued before the moratorium was put into place.

"The numbers are a little unclear, but we're talking at least 10 million hectares of existing concessions. We're hoping [the government will re-evaluate the concessions] sooner rather than later."

He also said the Norway deal's financial aspect could add impetus to the wider conservation effort. "But the money will be clearly linked to outcomes, and my understanding is that Norway will not pay that money unless there's clear progress," Laurance said.

The money is "on the table, but there has to be this clear demonstration of progress in terms of reducing deforestation and having a transparent forestry monitoring system."

John Kress, the ATBC's executive director and chairman of the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian Institution, said the Bali Declaration carried more weight than similar statements by environmental NGOs because it was based on expert studies.

"I think that the difference here... [is that] this is a group of objective scientists," he said.

"We are trying to do the most objective work, what needs to be done to maintain the environment. We have already tried to translate science in the most understandable statements for the general public, based on what we do as scientific investigators, and that's the big difference.

"We are scientists and our greatest strength is our credibility," Kress added. "We spent a lot of time doing the research that eventually led to this declaration. All of these points were drawn up from scientific research."

Meanwhile, Frans Bongers, the ATBC president, highlighted two presentations at the conference as being pertinent to Indonesia's challenge.

First, he pointed to research that found that draining peat lands ruins them, but that the process could be reversed by blocking drainage systems people have put in place. "Whether they do it, that's another thing," he said.

Another presentation showed that degraded areas could be restored by planting them with specific trees rather than clearing them for agriculture, Bongers said.

"That's a practical thing. That's not the level of politics, but rather of working people in the field making the difference, and that comes from 50 years [of research] across Southeast Asia," he said.

Indonesia to seek compensation over Timor Sea oil spill disaster

Reuters - July 22, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesia will seek compensation from a company operating a Timor Sea oil rig that last year leaked into Australian and Indonesian waters and caught ablaze, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Thursday.

The West Atlas rig – located off the Western Australian coast and operated by PTTEP Australasia, a unit of Thai energy giant PTT Exploration and Production – poured oil into the Timor Sea for over two months after springing a leak in August last year.

Yudhoyono told his cabinet on Thursday he would soon read a report from the Transportation Ministry on the environmental disaster.

"Of course, I will fulfil our obligations to finalize this issue, and put forward a claim to the company that caused this oil spill, while ensuring continued good diplomatic relations with both the government of Australia and the government of Thailand," he said. He did not say how much compensation Indonesia would seek.

The president said the area surrounding Indonesia's southernmost island, Rote Island, had been affected by the spill and deserved "decent compensation". "What is clear is that the company must give something to take responsibility for that incident," he said.

PTTEP's chief executive, Anon Sirisaengtaksin, told Reuters the company was not aware of the compensation matter. "I have no opinion about this," he said.

Women & gender

Women face harassment every day

Jakarta Post - July 20, 2010

Jakarta – A lack of legal protection – and a culture that excuses casual verbal and physical sexual abuse – makes obscene behavior an everyday experience for women on the streets and buses of Jakarta.

It was Friday noon when some ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers and street vendors sat on the pavement near the Bendungan Hilir pedestrian bridge in Central Jakarta while eating lunch purchased from a middle-aged woman.

"Pssst! Where are you going, love?" one of the men said to a woman who was passing by, while another man gave her a wolf whistle.

Ida, the food seller, smiled as she watched the incident. She told The Jakarta Post that these men acted as any other man would.

The sexual harassment of women, such as rude sexual comments, or more threatening physical contact, such as groping, happens everyday on the streets of Jakarta. Even city law enforcement officials are alleged to have made such violations.

The Jakarta City Public Order Agency fired Monday two public order officers who allegedly extorted and groped visitors at the National Monument in Central Jakarta on Saturday. Women who walk down any sidewalk or take any form of public transportation face sexual harassment everyday, but no one seems to care.

"I get a wolf whistle or a cat call at least once a day, everywhere I go in Jakarta," said Devi, a banker who commutes everyday by taxi or busway from the south of Jakarta to Jl. Sudirman.

"It's like a jungle out there," Devi told the Post. "Unfortunately both genders are too permissive and just let the incidents happen."

Incidents of sexual harassment in the TransJakarta busway system have recently been made public. Victims allege that men used the anonymity of crowded buses to grope their bodies.

Even worse is the experience of Margaretta, a secretary at a trading company in Petojo, Central Jakarta. "I was sitting in the back of a bus heading to ITC Roxy Mas mall in West Jakarta when a guy, who initially sat behind me, moved to the empty seat next to mine. Suddenly, I realized that his hand was already on my thigh," she said.

Lidya, a marketing executive in a company in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, had a similar story. "One night as I exited a taxi, a man suddenly jumped in front me and squeezed my breast," she said.

A car offers no immunity. Farah, who drives her own vehicle, said: "Some toll booths officers intentionally touch my hand or offer greetings with annoying gestures, often with winks, too"

Most women do nothing about the incidents, which reinforces the perception that there is nothing wrong with sexually harassing women in the street.

"Harassment happens all the time but we, women, can do nothing because we are too scared to scream," Margaretta said, adding that she immediately chose to jump off the bus right when she was molested.

Lidya said she did nothing, despite her upset, because she thought that yelling at the offenders was useless. Offenders often think their behavior is harmless and that the public does not care.

"When I was at university some of my friends did it for fun because the women were beautiful. Now they feel ashamed," Muhammad, who works in an oil and gas company on Jl. Sudirman, South Jakarta, said. Others, including some educated men, keep harassing women on the street and at work.

"There is a 43-year-old man – an executive – in my office, who wolf whistles at any woman he sees in the office," Muhammad said. He added that the man had told him that he had been doing it since young. Women feel humiliated even though wolf whistles, cat calls and other sexual comments were not physical sexual harassment, said Yuniyanti Chuzaifah, National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) chairwoman.

A culture of sexual harassment in Indonesia is nurtured by both genders, Yuniyanti said. "Patriarchal culture is not an excuse for both genders to justify such harassment," she added. "All humans should be respected. Culture can not justify the issue [of sexual harrassment]," Yunianti said.

Legal expert and activist Rita Serena Kolibonso said that there were no adequate laws against such offenses. "Our law is weak in relation to sexual harassment," she said.

Offenders may only be cited for violating Article 335 of the Criminal Code for "unpleasant conduct" or Article 281 for obscenity, she added.

"We need a strong and binding law on sexual harassment, including those forms of small offenses like intimidating verbal gesture. We could propose an independent law or integrate sexual harassment into existing the Criminal Code, only if it explicitly specifies the offenses," she said. (ipa)

Refugees & asylum seekers

Jakarta may lock up boatpeople

The Australian - July 23, 2010

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Australia might be asked to fund detention centres in Indonesia to help Jakarta deter asylum- seekers from using the nation as a staging point.

Jakarta's plan, which would lock up all asylum-seekers currently free in the community, comes amid pressure from Julia Gillard for a regional solution to the politically explosive problem.

The Australian has learnt that Indonesian officials are considering a plan that would end the country's practice of allowing asylum-seekers who have been assessed by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to live in the community, where they have easy access to boats that will take them to Australia to seek asylum.

The Australian government has been in discussions with countries in the region as it seeks a co-ordinated response to the asylum- seeker problem and to spread the burden that has previously fallen on Australia.

More than 140 asylum boats have arrived in Australian waters since Labor took office in 2007, filling Christmas Island beyond its capacity and forcing the government to spill asylum-seekers to the mainland in growing numbers. The Prime Minister announced a plan this month to process asylum-seekers offshore, first suggesting East Timor as a possible base for a centre.

However, the proposal met opposition from the fledging nation's government and a frosty reception from neighbouring countries.

In Jakarta last week, the Indonesian government said it wanted to have further talks with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith at the ASEAN meeting in Hanoi this week about Ms Gillard's regional processing plans.

Indonesia is concerned that Ms Gillard did not provide advance warning of her plan to establish a processing facility in East Timor, but talks have been unable to take place because the calling of the federal election placed the government in caretaker mode.

The Indonesian detention plan has been laid out at the highest levels of the country's Immigration Department.

It would directly answer Canberra's concerns about secondary movements of asylum-seekers once they reached Indonesia from Malaysia and elsewhere.

But such a plan would probably involve a massive funding injection by Australia.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Chris Evans said the government had increased discussions with countries in the region on combating the flow of boatpeople.

"These discussions include a range of issues including matters of law enforcement, detention and arrangements for the processing of asylum-seekers," the spokesman said. "The government will continue to work co-operatively with the Indonesian government and other countries in the region on such matters."

Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said she believed the Australian government was pressing the Indonesian government to detain transiting asylum-seekers, even when they had been recognised as refugees by the UNHCR.

"They're doing it already," Ms Curr said. "Most of them are now staying in detention. What is happening obviously is that the Indonesian government is formalising the process."

There are more than 1000 asylum-seekers living in the community in Indonesia hoping to reach Australia, and at least as many again locked up in 13 detention centres across the country. Those in the community are allowed to do so because they have been interviewed by UN High Commissioner for Refugees officials, or have obtained an appointment letter for such an interview.

But the practice is unpopular with Indonesian immigration officials, who privately express concern at the extra amount of work this creates, given the number of asylum-seekers who use their community-accommodation status to organise trips to Christmas Island, Ashmore Reef and elsewhere.

Many Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian and Sri Lankan asylum-seekers who have won UN approval live in the hills near Bogor, south of Jakarta, where accommodation and other costs are paid for at least in part by Australia through the International Organisation for Migration. From there they have access to the network of people-smugglers, whose phone numbers are passed from person to person.

Immigration officials believe policing this situation distracts from what they see as their real job, of keeping non-Indonesian aliens out of the country.

However, moving the entire asylum-seeker population into detention centres would require a massive infrastructure investment, of the kind executed by Australia in Tanjung Pinang on Bintan island near Singapore at an estimated cost of $12 million.

[Additional reporting: Paul Maley.]

Health & education

Breast-feeding decline worries health workers

Jakarta Globe - July 23, 2010

Dessy Sagita – Women's renewed focus on their careers and a dearth of information have been blamed for fewer mothers breast- feeding their newborns, an official said on Friday.

"Many working mothers in Indonesia prefer to give their babies formula milk because they say they don't have time to breast-feed them, which is an unacceptable excuse," Budiharja, the Ministry of Health's director general for community health and education, said at a press briefing to promote World Breast-Feeding Week, which starts on Aug. 2.

Budiharja said breast milk should ideally be a baby's only form of sustenance, adding that it was important to reducing infant mortality rates as targeted in the UN's Millennium Development Goals. "Sadly, though, parents are becoming busier and commercials for formula milk are bombarding the airwaves," he said.

In 2004, 58.9 percent of Indonesian women fed their babies an exclusive diet of breast milk within the first six months after giving birth, according to Ministry of Health data. By 2006, that figure had improved only marginally, going up to 64.1 percent, before dipping to 58.2 percent in 2008.

"We're unlikely to reach our target of getting 80 percent of mothers to breast-feed exclusively by 2010," Budiharja said.

Yet he said the government would launch an aggressive public education campaign to make headway in reaching the target.

Budiharja said that giving formula milk to babies under six months was not recommended, pointing out that preparing the formula in unhygienic situations could result in the baby getting diarrhea, which can be fatal in some cases.

"With breast milk, there's almost zero chance of the baby getting an infection, because the milk contains natural antibodies and is at the perfect temperature," he said.

He added that one of the reasons women were less likely to breast-feed was the lack of supporting public facilities.

"If office policy prohibits a woman from bringing her baby to work, then the management should at least allow her time to pump the milk and store it,"Budiharja said. "And because breast milk can be stored in a fridge, there's no reason not to give it to the baby, even though the mother might be busy."

He added that the Ministry of Health was currently drafting a decree that would punish anyone who prevented a mother from breast-feeding her baby. "With the strict enforcement of this new decree, we hope to get more people to support our campaign," he said.

Utami Roesli, head of the Indonesian Lactation Center, blamed the formula milk lobby on parents' ignorance about the importance of breast-feeding. "Anyone with common sense can see that breast milk is the best option for a baby," she said.

She added that research on the benefits of breast-feeding was not widely publicized. "Breast-feeding is an amazing thing that can save many lives and prevent babies from developing mental illnesses," Roesli said.

Budget hike may see poor schools miss out: Activists

Jakarta Globe - July 23, 2010

Arientha Primanita & Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta – Transparency on the part of the city administration is key to improving education and teaching facilities, the chief of a learning center for the poor and a researcher at a corruption watchdog said on Thursday.

Febri Hendri, a researcher for Indonesia Corruption Watch, pointed out that the city's proposal to increase funds for the education sector must be accompanied by a commitment to greater transparency.

"If the money is only used to beautify SBI [international- standard schools], for instance, then what's the use? Why are they failing to improve schools for the poor?" Hendri told the Jakarta Globe.

The city has proposed a Rp 1.13 trillion ($125 million) increase in the education budget, from Rp 5.95 trillion to Rp 7.08 trillion.

Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo had said that the proposed increase would contribute toward teachers' salaries, operational funds for elementary and junior high schools, rehabilitation of elementary school buildings and an increase in learning facilities for vocational schools.

Ade Pujiati, chief of an open learning center for the poor managed by Setiabudi SMP 67 junior high school in South Jakarta, echoed Hendri when she said on Thursday that little good could come out of an increase in the education budget if the city failed to be transparent in the distribution of funds to the poor.

Her typical students, she said, were trash-pickers, former buskers and laborers.

Students at Ade's students do not pay fees. After years of lobbying and visiting different institutions, Ade is able to provide psychologists and free hospital treatment for the children, who are also taught leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

"They know that they are poor. Without working harder, they will not make it," she said.

"All of the facilities were made possible because we received money from the School Operational Aid [BOS] and Education Operational Aid [BOP] funds, unlike other learning centers," Ade said. This has made her vocal in fighting for transparency. However, her own center is facing closure because the state school that is responsible for it has refused to take in new students.

Meanwhile, on the day the Jakarta administration proposed an increased budget for the education sector, the roof of Ruhul Islamic kindergarten collapsed in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, injuring three children and panicking students and teachers.

Fadillah Dewantara, 5, and Revallino Prasetyo, 5, required multiple stitches at Mitra Keluarga International Hospital in Jatinegara for their injuries.

Witnesses told the Jakarta Globe that nearby construction work had caused asbestos and bricks to fall through the roof of the school.

The principal, Ristiani, told the Globe that the school, which has 88 students, had never been formally registered with the Jakarta Education Office.

"We have been trying to get a permit. Only when we are finally formally registered can we receive aid from the East Jakarta Education Office," Ristiani said.

Child obesity a growing problem in Indonesia

Jakarta Post - July 23, 2010

Ika Krismantari, Jakarta – Isn't it inevitable that a life of excess brings with it big problems? Children suffering from obesity are proof that life may not be easier for those carrying around extra weight.

Ade Saputra, 12, from Bogor, West Java, said he was often teased by his friends because of his size. "They call me fat boy, it makes me feel ashamed," Ade told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Ade, a junior high student, weighs 72 kilograms and is 146 centimeters tall. He also suffers from poor health, with breathing difficulties after light exercise. Whenever children have problems, the parents are left to take care of the mess.

Ade's mother, Haronsyah, said she had to pay attention to her youngest son's diet. "Ade eats junk food only once a week. I am trying to reduce his meals," the mother of three, said.

Before, Ade enjoyed having to sugar-rich bottled tea and greasy snacks such as fish balls. He said he used to drink two glasses of full cream milk a day before it was substituted by low-fat milk, following a suggestion by his nutritionist, a decision that also required the family to spend more.

Ade's problem is typical of thousands of cases of child obesity in Indonesia. Obesity among children in Indonesia has doubled in the last decade.

The Health Ministry says that in 2007, the prevalence of obesity among children between the age of six and 14 was 9.5 percent among boys and 6.4 percent among girls. These figures are much higher than the 4 percent recorded in 1990.

Even though the number of obese children has been increasing at alarming rates, the government and the public remain unaware of the severity of the problem. Parental ignorance is also worsening the issue.

Pediatrician Aman B. Pulungan said that sometimes parents were clueless about obesity and their children.

"They come to us with other complaints such as hypertension or respiratory problems, without realizing that those all stem from obesity," he said, adding that if not addressed, obese children could develop serious diseases such as diabetes.

Obese children may also bring another burden for parents. "They need special diets with much more expensive food. They also need frequent consultation with doctors," Haronsyah said, adding that she spent between Rp 250,000 (US$27.75) and Rp 500,000 a month on doctor visits alone.

However, some parents take the issue lightly, including the parents of Albert Riantho Salim, 13, who now weighs 97 kilograms and is 165 centimeters tall.

"Albert loves to eat chocolate bars, and ice cream after his meals. It's a hobby," his mother, Rina Sujanto, said while showing off her refrigerator, stocked full of ice cream and other sweet desserts. "If he wants to lose weight, he will diet on his own when he meets girls during puberty," she said. (not)

Bank Century inquiry

House threatens law enforcers in Century probe

Jakarta Globe - July 22, 2010

Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – The House of Representatives team monitoring investigations of the Bank Century scandal threatened on Wednesday to reduce the budget of law enforcement agencies if they failed to produce results in line with lawmakers' recommendation that the bailout was illegal.

The National Police, the Attorney General's Office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) are probing the legality of the Rp 6.7 trillion ($737 million) bailout of collapsing Bank Century in November 2008, which the legislature voted was illegal in a March session.

The monitoring team, which has criticized what it perceives to be a slow pace of investigation, believes that all three law enforcers are leaning toward concluding that there were no irregularities in the rescue package.

Anis Matta, the House deputy speaker from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and leader of the monitoring team, said that if the three agencies failed to execute their task in accordance to the legislature's recommendation, it would consider various sanctions, including financial.

"One of them is through the budget," Anis said, referring to using the legislature's right to reduce the budget allocation for government bodies.

Bambang Soesatyo, a lawmaker from the Golkar Party and a vocal critic of the bailout, said budget allocations were "based on performance," and that perceived ineptitude in investigating the Bank Century case would constitute poor performance.

The three legal bodies have failed to conduct the investigation using the House recommendation as the main point of reference, Bambang added.

"We have yet to see the three agencies investigate" the officials who were responsible for approving the bailout policy, Bambang said, referring to Vice President Boediono (central bank governor at the time of the bailout), acting Bank Indonesia Governor Darmin Nasution and former Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

Boediono and Sri Mulyani have been questioned, but were never formally investigated in the case.

"We can cut [law enforcers'] budget as a form of punishment," the Golkar lawmaker said.

Mahfudz Siddiq, a lawmaker from the PKS who spoke on behalf of the monitoring team during a press conference, said the team would invite the agencies to go over evidence in the case on Aug. 25.

Bambang said lawmakers would use data gathered by the House probe into the bailout to cross-examine evidence from law-enforcement agencies.

"From the data that we have, there is more than enough evidence [that the bailout was illegal]," Bambang said.

Mahfudz said the cross-examination did not serve as an official legal examination, but it was more to test the law enforcers' tentative conclusions from an academic perspective.

Golkar and the PKS, though part of the government coalition, voted to find the bailout illegal, while the ruling Democratic Party and two other coalition partners voted otherwise.

Didi Irawadi Syamsuddin, a Democratic lawmaker, urged all parties to let law enforcers do their job without any intervention from legislators.

"The investigation should be handed over to law enforcers who use existing legal channels," Didi said.

The press conference took place following increasing criticism that the House monitoring team was losing interest in pursuing the long-running Bank Century bailout saga.

The last time the monitoring team held a meeting was on June 9, when it summoned the same three law-enforcement bodies and concluded that their findings at the time were inadequate.

What happened to the Century bailout saga?

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Armando Siahaan – It was only months ago that the country was mesmerized by the PT Bank Century bailout saga. But now, with no end in sight, public and political attention has simply disappeared.

A group of lawmakers alleged that the Rp 6.7 trillion ($743.7 million) government bailout of the collapsing Bank Century in 2008 was riddled with irregularities, prompting a probe by the House of Representatives.

The House eventually voted that the bailout had violated the law, and a group of lawmakers sought to bring down Vice President Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati over the decision to rescue the lender.

But the House resolution was not legally binding. The next step was a formal investigation by the National Police, the Attorney General's Office and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), with legislators only able to monitor the progress of the case.

"There is a systematic effort to cover up the Bank Century case," said Bambang Soesatyo, from the Golkar Party, who has been a vocal member of the group of nine lawmakers who initiated the probe into the contentious bailout.

Bambang said law enforcers had failed to execute the mandate from the legislature to investigate the case because of political intervention by the government. As a result, he alleged, law enforcers have buried the Century scandal and have created diversions by hyping other cases.

"The National Police are preoccupied with Ariel's case," Bambang said, referring to the Peterpan frontman caught up in the celebrity sex tape scandal.

Police, the AGO and the KPK have all claimed to have run into difficulties in uncovering irregularities in the bailout.

"We have more than enough evidence to prove criminal action in the bailout," Bambang said, adding that lawmakers were ready to conduct a joint investigation with the law-enforcement officers.

Lily Wahid, a lawmaker from the National Awakening Party (PKB) who was also a vocal advocates of the probe, said that when President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono defended the bailout in a nationally televised speech, she knew the case would be quietly shelved. "It was like a direct order to the law enforcers to stop the investigation," she said.

Akbar Faisal, a lawmaker from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and a member of the initial probe team, said the responsibility to ensure the case moved forward rested with the House speaker and his deputies, who should be monitoring the investigation. "It seems like [House leaders] no longer have the will to solve the Bank Century case," he said.

Akbar also questioned the commitment of the larger political parties to see the case through.

The push for an investigation received aggressive support not only from opposition parties but also from key pro-government coalition members such as Golkar and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). "Just ask [the large parties] where they want the case to go," he said.

Yunarto Wijaya, an analyst from Charta Politicka, said "the Bank Century scandal waned because it was politically designed to be like that."

He said that from the beginning, Bank Century had been more of a political case than a legal one, since the effort to seek a resolution began in the legislature.

Yunarto said the case was simply used as a way to score political goals, with Golkar as the main driver. In this case, he said, Golkar wanted to oust Sri Mulyani in relation to her long-running tax-related dispute with party chairman Aburizal Bakrie.

Sri Mulyani resigned in May to assume a position as the managing director of the World Bank in Washington, DC, with analysts hinting that Golkar was the reason behind her exit.

"When Golkar already has what it wants, they stop their attack," Yunarto said, adding that there were clear indications that the party had toned down its rhetoric after Sri Mulyani was gone.

With Golkar no longer on the attack, other parties were unable to maintain a formidable front in the case, he said.

The PKB's Lily said that the only parties that had remained consistent in their criticism of the case were PDI-P, Hanura and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), which are all in the opposition.

Yunarto said that it was crucial for law-enforcement agencies to conclude their investigation soon.

"It would prove whether [Sri Mulyani and Boediono] were actually guilty, and if they were not, it would show that there were other actors behind the scenes," he said.

Graft & corruption

Police play down NGO findings on assault case

Jakarta Post - July 23, 2010

Jakarta – Police have denied allegations by NGOs that they were aware of a possible attack on Tama S. Langkun, an antigraft activist who was attacked by unknown assailants on July 8.

An independent fact-finding team led by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) released temporary investigation results indicating that an unnamed police officer had offered to protect Tama on July 7, a day before the incident.

The findings suggest that the officer worked for the Jakarta Police, and that his "offer" to Tama, an investigator with Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW), was a strong indication that police supposedly knew Tama was a potential target of a violent attack.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Boy Rafli Amar said Thursday that citizens, including Tama, who felt that they were in danger, should report any suspicious security threats to the police, so that they could be protected from any possible attack. "It's part of the police's duties," he said.

He also said that police were unsure if the unnamed officer worked for the Jakarta Police, adding that they were now trying to trace whether he actually existed.

The police have not disclosed the result of their investigation into Tama's case, saying that it was highly confidential. "We will disclose it when we have named a suspect," he said.

NGOs claim the purpose of the unnamed officer's visit to ICW offices on July 7 was to discuss Tama's ongoing probe into the suspiciously large bank accounts held by several senior police officials, and to develop "good relations" with the ICW.

ICW activist Agus Sunaryanto, who is also a coordinator in ICW's investigative division, said the unnamed officer came to see Tama to offer protection from a possible attack.

He added the officer even came to visit Tama hours after the assault, when he was still badly injured and being treated at Asri Hospital in South Jakarta.

"Tama requested a friend from ICW call the officer when he was still in hospital. He wanted to let the officer know he was attacked," he said, adding that ICW were disappointed at the slow process of the police investigation into the case.

Agus said Tama and other ICW activists sensed that they had been followed by suspicious individuals since July 5, when two motorcycles tailed Tama and his friend Ade to Kalibata mall in South Jakarta.

"We didn't report such suspicious activities because we never expected that our activists would be violently assaulted. This incident is the first of its kind in ICW history," he said.

Kontras monitoring and investigation official Syamsul Alam Agus said the fact-finding team had spoken to the unnamed officer, who confirmed he met with Tama to offer protection.

Tama was attacked on July 8 on Jl. Duren Tiga, South Jakarta, just two days after unknown assailants lobbed Molotov cocktails at the offices of Tempo newsmagazine in South Jakarta. He was heading home after watching a World Cup match in Kemang, South Jakarta. (tsy)

Police generals let off the hook in Gayus case

Jakarta Globe - July 22, 2010

Farouk Arnaz & Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – Despite catching flak last week for failing to follow through on an internal probe into suspicious money dealings by senior officers, the National Police on Wednesday risked more public anger by clearing two high- ranking officers of bribery claims.

Brig. Gen. Edmond Ilyas and Brig. Gen. Raja Erizman, had been indirectly implicated by the National Police's former chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, who gave lawmakers the initials of two top officers who had received bribes in relation to a case against rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan.

The current chief of detectives, Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi, told journalists on Wednesday there was no indication of wrongdoing by the officers.

"What they did was only negligence because they failed to monitor their subordinates' handling of the Gayus case. For this mistake, they have already been reassigned," he said. "It's clear enough for us that there is no proof that either of them committed a crime."

Raja, former head of the economic crimes division at the National Police, is now an expert adviser to National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri. The same post has also been given to Edmond, who was removed from his post as Lampung Police chief in the wake of the Gayus scandal.

Comr. Arafat Enanie and Adj. Comr. Sri Sumartini are facing bribery charges in the same case.

Arafat is currently on trial for abusing his authority to help Gayus avoid money-laundering charges in connection to Rp 28 billion ($3.1 million) found in the former mid-ranking tax official's personal bank accounts.

According to Arafat's indictment, Edmond had signed an Aug. 21, 2009, summons that changed the status of Roberto Santonius, a tax consultant who was originally named as a suspect along with Gayus, to a witness.

The indictment also said that Gayus, after learning that he would be arrested, handed $100,000 to his lawyer Haposan Hutagalung to be passed on to Arafat's superiors, who were Edmond and Sr. Comr. Pambudi Pamungkas, but did not clarify if the money had reached the two. The indictment did not mention Raja.

Edmond and Raja were dragged into the media spotlight in March after Susno said two high-ranking generals with the initials EI and RE were bribed to influence the case against Gayus, who was later only tried on a relatively minor embezzlement charge and acquitted in March.

Susno's claims, however, have led to the discovery of a so-called tax mafia and resulted in two lawyers and a judge being named as bribery suspects in the same case.

Arafat has claimed that he and Sri were mere scapegoats. "I didn't work alone," he said after his trial opened at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday.

Meanwhile, a police team investigating the force's handling of the Gayus case was officially disbanded on Tuesday after it said it had completed its internal probe.

But Indonesia Corruption Watch deputy chairman Emerson Yuntho was disappointed in the investigation. "I think the team's work only touched the lower-ranking officers but did not dare to touch the generals," he said.

The National Police were also criticized by rights groups after revealing on Friday that of the 23 reports it had received linking police officers to suspicious financial transactions, only two pointed to criminal activity.

'Extraordinary' tax corruption beyond comprehension: SBY

Jakarta Globe - July 21, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran – Massive graft at the tax department was "extraordinary crime beyond comprehension," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Wednesday.

He said he had ordered Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo to pull out all the stops to end violations by officials of the tax directorate.

"I'm still disappointed over the corruption in the Finance Ministry carried out by tax officers," Yudhoyono told 300 officials from the ministry's tax and customs and excise directorates. It is extraordinary crime beyond comprehension."

The directorates collect the bulk of state revenue. Yudhoyono ordered the minister and all his staff to ensure the violations stopped and continue the second phase of reform, specifically at the directorate general of taxation.

"When the minister asks for my support for the second stage of reformation, my answer is: My trust will soon recover as long as you show integrity, capacity and good performance," he said.

In the latest case to disgrace to the directorate, police earlier this month they had completed their dossier on former tax inspector Bahasyim Assifie and were preparing to hand it over to prosecutors.

Bashasyim was arrested over allegations that the Rp 64 billion ($7 million) he transferred to various family members came from bribes. He is accused of taking bribes from taxpayers in return for helping them minimize their tax bills in 2004 and 2005.

"You can be a hero, a moral hero, a justice hero, an economic hero or a state budget hero, but you can also be a moral criminal, a justice criminal, an economic criminal and state budget criminal," Yudhoyono said, referring to various tax scandals that also include the ongoing saga involving former tax official Gayus Tambunan.

But the president said he appreciated the tax directorate's successful efforts in boosting state revenue, especially during the past five years. In 2009, about 70 percent of the Rp 1,000 trillion state budget came from taxes and customs and excise.

Finance Minister Agus pledged to push ahead with reforms at the tax department, tighten internal procedures and improve governance, all the while ensuring that the body's key task of increasing state revenue was not ignored.

Agus said the corruption cases had been a big burden on the entire ministry. "We want to apologize to the president as the head of the nation and to Indonesian people over this worrying case," he said.

"We also promise to the president that we will fix it. It is our commitment that if such law violations happen in future, we will take tough action against the officers who are involved."

The second phase of reform at the directorate general of taxation was launched in mid-2009, under then directorate chief Darmin Nasution, who is now the acting governor at the central bank.

The second phase of reform included a $145 million project to revamp the computerized information system, part of a program to enhance the directorate's human resources in a bid to improve service to the public.

Darmin passed over the job to new tax chief Mochamad Tjiptardjo after he played a major role in advancing the first phase of the reform process.

The initial phase was launched in 2002, under which the number of registered taxpayers increased from about 3.2 million to 14.48 million in May this year.

Prosecutors investigate their own after illegal meeting

Jakarta Globe - July 22, 2010

Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office has launched an internal probe against several senior Indonesian prosecutors who allegedly met with media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibyo, whose brother Hartono is being investigated in relation to a major corruption case.

"We have questioned all of the officials involved, including the deputy attorney general for special crimes [Muhammad Amari] and the deputy attorney general on intelligence [Edwin Situmorang]," Deputy Attorney General for Special Crimes Marwan Effendy said on Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the AGO's 50th anniversary celebrations at his office, Marwan told reporters that the office's inspectorate was leading the investigation of Amari and Edwin. "We will see if there is a violation of the code of conduct or unprofessional behavior," he said.

Hartono is charged with violating article 12 of the Law on Corruption, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.

Hartono's company PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika provided an online corporate registration service at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights and is accused of swindling 90 percent of revenues from the service. The AGO estimates state losses at more than Rp 410 billion ($45 million).

Amari has admitted to meeting Hary at his office on Monday. "Hary Tanoe was already downstairs waiting for me. He said he wanted to meet me, so I invited him to come to my office," he said.

"In our meeting, Hary said that he would pay the state losses. I said to him 'of course you can, but that doesn't mean that the charges against your brother could be dropped. The best I can do is to consider it as a mitigating factor.' I haven't talked to him again since."

Marwan said that despite Hary's motive there was a internal regulation that prohibited AGO officials from meeting people connected to investigations.

The case also implicated former Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who has also been named a suspect. Yusril has been fighting against the AGO's decision by questioning the legality of the position of Attorney General Hendarman Supandji.

Hendarman, Yusril said, is a member of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet during the president's first and second term. But the president has never officially reinstated Hendarman as attorney general after Yudhoyono was reelected in 2009.

Yusril argued that the AGO's decision to charge him was therefore illegal. Yusril also alleged that Hendarman had received $3 million from an unspecified source in return for naming Yusril as a suspect.

Yusril challenged Hendarman to prove his innocence. "The burden of proof rests on the one making the accusation," Hendarman said on Thursday. "I was being accused so I don't need to prove anything."

Former Sarana president Yohannes Waworuntu has already been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the case.

Investigation concludes attack on activist was well-planned

Jakarta Globe - July 21, 2010

Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – An independent investigation team led by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, or Kontras, has come to the conclusion that the attack on anti-graft activist Tama Satrya Langkun was well-planned.

Tama, an investigator from the Indonesian Corruption Watch, was brutally beaten by a group of men in Kemang, South Jakarta, on July 8.

Hariz Azhar, a Kontras researcher, said that a couple of men tried to tamper with Tama's motorcycle two weeks before the beating occurred.

"On June 20, two unknown men jumped off the ICW gate at 4 a.m. and tried to mess up Tama's motorcyle. On July 7, Tama received a phone call from an old university friend who told him that a policeman was looking for him," Hariz said.

Shortly after he received the call, a police official, who Hariz identified as Adj. Sr. Comr. S, came to the ICW office with two members of his staff. "Basically, S warned Tama about the possibility of an attack," Hariz said.

Nurcholis, another member of the independent team from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), added that S also revealed that the police were "restless" over ICW's investigation on the suspiciously hefty bank accounts of several police generals.

"According to S, the police were generally restless, especially at the lower levels. He said, 'If you want to catch the fish, don't ruin the pool,'" Nurcholis said. "S also said that 'the Molotov cocktail attacks on the Tempo magazine offices could also happen to ICW.'"

According to the independent team, their findings suggested that Tama had long become a target. "We can conclude that Tama had been made a target for a while. The perpetrators could be part of a clandestine operation or certain rogue elements at the police. But the attack could also be part of a systematic operation based on instructions from top officials," Hariz said.

Tama was one among ICW activists who reported the suspiciously hefty bank accounts of several police generals to the Corruption Eradication Communication (KPK) and the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force.

The report became the basis of Tempo magazine's main story on their June 28 edition. Tempo's offices were attacked with Molotov cocktails a week after they published the story.

Komnas HAM to launch investigation of attack on ICW activist

Jakarta Globe - July 21, 2010

Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – The National Commission for Human Rights pledged on Tuesday to launch its own investigation into the beating of an anti-corruption activist in early July.

Ifdal Kasim, chairman of the commission, also known as Komnas HAM, said police had been slow in catching the perpetrators behind the attack on Indonesia Corruption Watch researcher Tama Satrya Langkun.

"Police are quick to unravel a terrorism plot but the investigation into the assault had been slow," Ifdal said. "This raises questions about whether police are really serious about catching the perpetrators."

Tama was ambushed on July 8 by four assailants and was hospitalized with multiple injuries.

There has been speculation that the assault was connected to Tama's reporting to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force that a number of police generals had suspiciously large bank balances.

"We will form our own independent investigation team and conduct fresh investigations from the beginning of the case to the day of the beating," Ifdal said.

Komnas HAM member Yosep Adi Prasetyo said the team would also monitor police handling of the case and the attempted firebombing of Tempo magazine's offices in Central Jakarta, which occurred just three days before the attack on Tama.

Two unidentified people threw Molotov cocktails at the office of Tempo, a weekly publication that also reported on the suspicious bank accounts.

"The team will consist of people outside the police force. We don't know exactly who but it will include officials from other institutions like the LPSK [Witness and Victim Protection Agency] and Kompolnas [National Police Commission]," Yosep said.

Darwin Aritonang, a lawyer for Tempo, said earlier that four witnesses – all working for the magazine – claimed to have been intimidated during their questioning at the Central Jakarta Police headquarters that lasted for nearly 24 hours.

The witnesses, Darwin said, had been forced by police to admit the attack was caused by an internal rift at the magazine.

Dadang Trisasongko, an anticorruption expert at the Partnership for Governance Reform and an ICW adviser, said there were indications police had tried to obscure the motive behind the assault on Tama.

"There had been attempts to distort the case by saying that the assault was related to a gambling ring or a jealous girlfriend. None of it is true. The beating is related to Tama's investigation into the suspicious police accounts," Dadang said.

"I feel that the police are half-hearted in investigating and finding the perpetrators behind the attack. Even if they managed to catch the [assailants], a police investigation is not likely to find the mastermind. The same goes with police probes into the accounts."

The National Police announced on Friday that only two of 23 reports it had received from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) linking police officers to shady financial transactions pointed to criminal activity.

The two were identified as Comr. Martin Reno, an officer with the Papua Police who has already been tried in relation to his suspicious account, and embattled Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, who is currently detained on graft charges for allegedly taking a Rp 500 million ($55,000) bribe from a suspected case broker.

South Jakarta Police today are scheduled to question Tama again for the third time. On Monday, police again questioned Tama, who said afterward he was only asked about his activities prior to the attack.

'Evidence' vs KPK deputies a no-show in court

Jakarta Globe - July 20, 2010

Nivell Rayda & Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – A key piece of evidence that served as the basis for charging two deputies of the Corruption Eradication Commission with extortion does not appear to exist, according to the testimony of a National Police officer at a special hearing at the Anti-Corruption Court on Tuesday.

Comr. Farman, who led the investigation last year into Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah, told the court that police did not possess the supposed wiretapped recordings between middleman Ary Muladi and Ade Rahardja, the chief of graft enforcement for the antigraft agency, also known as the KPK.

But in November, National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri had told House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, that 64 recordings of conversations between Ade and Ary had implicated Bibit and Chandra and justified naming them as suspects.

The court last week ordered the National Police to present the recordings, but they showed up empty-handed on Tuesday.

The KPK has said businessman Anggodo Widjojo, who wanted the KPK to drop its case against his brother, Anggoro, helped fabricate the extortion case against the two deputies.

Ary initially testified last year that he had channeled Rp 5.1 billion ($565,000) from Anggodo to Bibit and Chandra, with Ade delivering the bribes. But Ary later recanted his statements and said he instead gave the money to a person named Yulianto, who has never been found.

"[The recordings] were not among the list of evidence that we have obtained," Farman told the court when asked by the prosecution whether police investigators had possession of the wiretaps.

Bibit's and Chandra's lawyer, Taufik Basari, said this could mean the recordings never existed in the first place.

"If they do exist, then I don't see the difficulties in presenting them to court. We need the National Police chief to tell the truth. Did they have enough evidence to begin an investigation or not?" he said.

During Anggodo's trial last month, Ade told the court that police had not questioned him about the recordings, nor was his voice compared to those on the tapes.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang refused to comment on Farman's remark or why police had yet to present the so-called evidence to the court.

A police document obtained by the Jakarta Globe indicates that they had obtained only Ade's and Ary's call data records, which show the phone numbers, duration of calls and when the calls were made. The document also suggests that police had closed-circuit television footage as well, but it was never made clear what was recorded.

During Anggodo's trial, Ade and Ary claimed they had never contacted each other and that the phone numbers cited by police were not theirs.

Anggodo's lawyer, Thomson Situmeang, said he would continue to push the police to disclose all of the evidence that they claimed to have. "I don't think police would make bogus claims and charge Bibit and Chandra out of nothing," he said. "Whatever evidence police have would prove that my client is only a victim of extortion."

On Tuesday, the prosecution also summoned Wisnu Subroto, former deputy attorney general of intelligence. The KPK had publicly released several recordings that indicate that Wisnu was supposedly asked by Anggodo to persuade another witness, Eddy Sumarsono, to change his testimony.

"I admit that Anggodo did contact me, but it was only a harmless conversation," Wisnu told the court. "I told Anggodo to settle his differences with Eddy directly. I refused to go along and persuade Eddy to change his testimony even though Eddy and me are close friends."

Eddy had testified in court that Anggodo tried to pay him off to give a false statement to the police about having bribed the two KPK deputies.

Anggodo said that he regretted calling Wisnu and that the KPK had recorded their conversation. Since the wiretapped recordings between Anggodo and Wisnu were aired in court, the AGO official had been demoted.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this," Anggodo told Wisnu. Later, Anggodo, with tear-filled eyes and a trembling voice, approached Wisnu, bowed and kissed his hand.

Police declare two officials innocent in Gayus Tambunan case

Jakarta Globe - July 21, 2010

Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – Two high-ranking police officials implicated in the Gayus Tambunan case, Brig. Gen. Edmond Ilyas, the former director of the National Police economic crimes unit, and his successor, Brig. Gen. Radja Erizman, could breathe a sigh of relief on Wednesday as the investigator failed to establish their criminal involvement.

"There is no indication that they have committed a crime. What they did is only negligence as they havenfailed to monitor their subordinate's handling of the Gayus case. For this mistake they have already been moved from their posts," National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi told journalists.

Ito stated that the police did not have to wait for the trial of Comr. Arafat Enanie. "No. Its clear enough for us that there is no proof that either of them committed the crime," Ito said.

Arafat, a mid-ranking police officer on trial at the South Jakarta District Court on Monday for taking bribes said the charges against him represented a small part of an entrenched system of corruption that permeated through the police and tax offices.

The trial stemmed from the police's handling of suspicious bank accounts worth Rp 28 billion ($3.1 million) belonging to former tax official Gayus Tambunan.

The indictment against Arafat says that when Gayus, through his lawyer, sought advice from Arafat on how to retrieve his money from the suspicious account, the officer told him to claim that the money had come from a private business.

Arafat and fellow officer Sri Sumartini, who also named as suspect, later interrogated Andi at Hotel Kartika Chandra on Sept. 27, according to the indictment. Also present at the hotel were Gayus and his lawyers.

According to the indictment, Gayus gave his lawyer $100,000 to forward to Arafat's superiors, Chief Comr. Pambudi Pamungkas and Brig. Gen. Edmon Ilyas.

Pambudi and Edmon refused to receive the money from Gayus. On other occasions, Gayus gave Arafat $6,000, Sri Sumartini $500,000 and Adj. Comr. Mardiyani $500,000, the indictment states.

Arafat has expressed concern that, despite the other names being mentioned in the indictment, he and Sri Sumartini were the only members of the National Police to be named suspects for the controversial handling of the Gayus case.

Meanwhile an independent police team headed by Insp. Gen. Mathius Salempang, responsible for investigating the Gayus case, was officially dismissed on Tuesday having completed their duties.

National Police dismiss independent team on judicial mafia

Jakarta Post - July 21, 2010

Jakarta – The National Police have dispersed its independent team to investigate possible judicial mafia within the force.

"We have completed the investigation," the police spokesman Sr. Comr. Marwoto Soeto said Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

He said the team had reported its finding to the Judicial Mafia Taskforce and Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto at the police's headquarters in Jakarta earlier in the day.

In late March, police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri formed the independent team to probe the alleged case brokering within the police force.

The case grows around a claim by former National Police detective chief Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji who accused a number of police officers, including two police generals, of embezzling money in an alleged money laundering and tax evasion case involving tax officer Gayus Tambunan.

Dirty money drawn to financial markets

Jakarta Post - July 21, 2010

Jakarta – The stellar performance of Indonesia's financial market in recent years has made investments in securities and also currencies a top choice for money laundering, the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) says.

Financial markets are attracting money launderers, as opposed to the traditional laundering methods of investing in hard assets such as real estate, due to higher investment returns, better liquidity of assets and legal loopholes, experts say.

PPATK spokesman Natsir Kongah said the banking system was the catalyst for money laundering activity in the financial markets as perpetrators created a complex web of financial transactions using proxy bank accounts.

"They usually use middlemen or fictitious company names when transferring funds," Natsir said. He added that some money launderers also transferred funds to overseas bank accounts.

A PPATK report shows that as of the end of June, the anti-money laundering agency identified 19,238 suspicious transactions in the financial market comprising 18,285 from currency traders, 932 from security companies and 21 from investment managers.

Last year, the PPATK said, the number of suspicious transactions in the financial market jumped almost five fold from a year before to 15,626.

Similar transactions in currency trading also went up almost five times to 14,813 while suspicious transactions from securities companies more than doubled to 794.

The money laundering law states that a transaction is deemed suspicious if the value does not suit the profile, characteristics or common transaction pattern of a bank account owner, or is funded from criminal acts. The PPATK specifically monitors all transactions above Rp 500 million (US$55,500) prior to checking the profile and characteristics.

Natsir said his institution needed greater authority, particularly to investigate suspicious transactions it found to make police investigations easier. Currently, he said, the PPATK could only accept reports on suspicious transactions and pass them to the police.

Transparency International Indonesia deputy secretary-general Rizki Wibowo said in a discussion forum Tuesday that despite the huge number of suspicious transactions documented by the PPATK, the police had investigated only 8 percent of the PPATK's reports.

"This fact is a sign of weak law enforcement against money laundering practices in the country," he said.

Kastorius Sinaga, a sociologist and former advisor to the National Police chief, said money launderers chose financial markets because to date, there were no regulations obliging securities firms, investment managers or currency traders to disclose the history of their funds. "So it's more difficult for law enforcement officials to detect the source of the funds," he said Tuesday.

He said most securities firms offered easy investment procedures to their customers and pledged to keep confidential the history of their funds. They also promise customers lucrative yields from their investments in a relatively short period of time, he said. "You can make a profit very quickly in the financial markets and it's 'clean' money."

Kastorius said that of the 25 criminal acts stipulated in the money laundering law, corrupt practices by public officials were the biggest contributors of funds being laundered. (rdf)

Indonesia Corruption Watch seeks house probe into police

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Nivell Rayda & Zaky Pawas, Jakarta – Disappointed by the National Police's "half-hearted" investigation, Indonesia Corruption Watch on Monday said it would lobby the House of Representatives to start its own probe into suspicious bank accounts allegedly belonging to senior officers.

"The National Police has investigated the accounts half- heartedly. We cannot even say that police have investigated the accounts because all they did was simply issue statements to clarify allegations against those officers in question," ICW deputy chairman Emerson Yuntho said.

Denny Indrayana, secretary of the presidentially appointed Judicial Mafia Eradication Task Force said that the team would evaluate police findings.

"The task force respects the internal process at the National Police [in investigating the accounts]. On the other hand the task force notes that civilian societies have reacted strongly against those findings," Denny said.

Separately, South Jakarta Police on Monday questioned ICW researcher Tama Satrya Langkun, who was ambushed on July 8 by four assailants and was hospitalized with multiple injuries.

There has been speculation the assault was connected to Tama's reporting to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the task force that a number of police generals had suspiciously large bank balances.

But Tama said he was only questioned about his activities prior to the attack. "I was quizzed for six hours but none of the questions were related to my attack on Thursday morning," he said. "Investigators said they would summon me again on Wednesday."

Three days before the beating, Tama told the Globe that he was being stalked by four unidentified men. Several ICW activists noted that there was a black Toyota Innova parked near the group's office in the Kalibata area of South Jakarta.

But Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar said police were having difficulty identifying Tama's attackers. The police sketches of the attackers were "not perfect because after all, those attackers were wearing helmets," he said.

But he added that police were investigating the case thoroughly and there was more than one way to identify the assailants.

The National Police last week promised to arrest Tama's attackers within the week but acknowledged on Friday that they had failed to do so.

Usman Hamid, a coordinator from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said that he was disappointed as the National Police failed to meet its own deadline of arresting the attackers.

"The police did not fulfill their promise to capture the perpetrators. They also failed to show sincerity to fully investigate suspicious accounts which allegedly involve police officers," Usman said.

Financial watchdog's leash slightly lengthened

Jakarta Post - July 20, 2010

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The country's leading financial watchdog is conceding to legislators' rejection of its proposal to investigate suspicious transactions, settling for the authority's pledge to allow the body to "examine" such transactions in a bill reviewing the money laundering law.

The director for laws and regulations at the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK), Muhammad Yusuf, said he was optimistic a new money laundering law will be endorsed next month but said it would not likely grant the financial intelligence unit with the authority to further investigate as earlier hoped.

Yusuf said Monday that the right to investigate is among three main contentious issues in the deliberation on the bill on the revision of the 2003 Money Laundering Law.

The other two issues are who should be authorized to conduct investigations and the body's capacity for international cooperation.

"We've proposed that the PPATK is given the authority to carry preliminary investigations, but the legislature disagrees despite our argument that it will not mean we will surpass authority of [law enforcement officials]," Yusuf said.

"They think it will overlap with the Criminal Code [KUHP]," he said, although the center has only pushed for a preliminary investigation. Given the resistance at the House, "we will probably only agree on using the term 'examination'."

Yusuf said the examination authority would allow the PPATK to request clarifications on suspicious transactions from involved parties.

However they would only be able to seek clarification through, for instance, correspondence, as without investigation authority the PPATK cannot summon any party for clarification.

So far, the organization can only trace suspicious transactions based on reports from financial service providers such as banks, securities firms, insurance firms and money changers.

Scores of legislators have been named in graft cases investigated by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), leading to suspicions that House members themselves seek to curb authorities' means to investigate suspicious accounts.

Yusuf added the government also hoped the House would agree on granting the authority to probe money laundering cases to the KPK rather than the police and the Attorney General's Office. "This multi-investigators policy is crucial because the police have failed to follow up many of our reports," he said.

The spotlight is now on the National Police headquarters, which has for years ignored the PPATK's reports of suspicious accounts belonging to senior police officers.

In 2006 the government submitted to the House a draft bill to revise the 2003 Money Laundering Law.

Yusuf said other issues the government and the House had agreed on included other types of financial service providers who would be obliged to report suspicious transactions to the PPATK or transactions worth at least Rp 500 million (US$55,500). They will include "car dealers, antique goods traders and real estate firms," Yusuf said.

The government and the House have also agreed on the PPATK's authority to temporarily freeze financial accounts of suspected parties.

The PPATK has been recently accused of trying to become a "super body". A member of the House's working committee on the bill, Bambang Soesatyo of the Golkar Party, reportedly said the House objected proposals to grant the PPATK powers to conduct further investigations, use wiretaps, detain suspects and receive incentives equal to 25 percent of the value of state money it manages to save.

"The accusation is misleading and totally incorrect," Yusuf said.

Disappointing police probe symptomatic of failed reforms: Critics

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Heru Andriyanto – The National Police's pledge to provide clarification on the suspicious bank accounts of some of its senior officers appears to be nothing more than a PR statement, antigraft campaigners said on Sunday, slamming the force for ignoring public concern over the issue and its failure to conduct internal reform.

"Friday's statement was a big disappointment," said Boyamin Saiman, chairman of non-governmental group Indonesian Anti- Corruption Society (Maki).

"The National Police have been given a second chance to restore their credibility, but again they just simply ignored the public outrage over reports of suspicious bank accounts belonging to high-ranking officers," he said.

The police announced on Friday that they had received reports from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) about the bank accounts of 23 officers, but said only two of them allegedly received funds from illegal sources.

The two were identified as Comr. Martin Reno, an officer with the Papua Police who has already been tried in relation to his suspicious account, and disgruntled Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, who is being detained on graft charges for allegedly accepting Rp 500 million ($55,000) from a suspected case broker.

After Susno alleged that policemen, prosecutors and judges had taken bribes from taxman Gayus Tambunan in order to clear him of money laundering and graft charges, it seemed that the police were about to initiate a major overhaul. However, the public was ultimately disappointed after two generals, as well as several prosecutors, managed to escape charges.

"Now [the police] are focusing on an already convicted officer and a general who is being regarded as an enemy of the institution. We cannot expect anything of great significance to come from that kind of response," Boyamin said.

"The only body that can take the appropriate action over the officers' suspicious accounts is the Corruption Eradication Commission [KPK], which has supervisory authority over other law agencies when it comes to corruption cases. Now we are awaiting a response from the commission."

The police possess more power since their separation from the military, but while the latter has to some extent carried out internal reforms and terminated "inappropriate policies" like military businesses, the police have done little in this regard, Boyamin said.

"The sizeable police accounts may derive from individual businesses as they claimed, but even so, the businesses relate to their position of authority. It's safer to secure business deals with someone who holds authority in law enforcement, so officers who have huge sums of money in their accounts from business are still liable to graft investigation," Boyamin said. "And, of course, we must rule out the possibility that the money stemmed from their handling of criminal cases involving high-profile figures."

However, another antigraft campaigner, Zainal Arifin Muchar, a law lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, believed the police were unlikely to hand the case on to other law agencies.

"This is a money laundering case by nature and the only agency that can initiate an investigation into that is the police," Zainal told the Jakarta Globe.

"Yes, the police response in the case has been disappointing, but the case falls under their authority. I suggest that the PPATK and the [Judicial Mafia Eradication] Task Force play a bigger role."

Rivalries, high politics in Indonesian graft case

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Heru Andriyanto – It started out as a common corruption case at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights uncovered by mid-ranking prosecutors.

But once the Rp 410 billion ($45.5 million) business registry Web site graft scandal began dragging down big names, it opened a Pandora's box of accusations and controversies, from multibillion rupiah bribery allegations and high-level blackmail to a battle between the country's most powerful tycoons and even a high-level debate over the legal standing of the attorney general.

No one could have imagined that Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana, the eldest daughter of the late President Suharto, would use the graft scandal as an opening to challenge media mogul Hary Tanoesoedibjo in her attempt to win back the TV station that she once owned, Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia (TPI).

Or that a second battlefront would open up around Former Justice Minister and Crescent Star Party (PBB) founder Yusril Ihza Mahendra over his alleged involvement in the Web site scandal.

When he was named a suspect in the case, Yusril wasted no time hitting back hard at Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, accusing him of illegally occupying his post.

The former minister also accused Hendarman of receiving money from the Web site and being blackmailed into naming him a suspect.

The case began simply enough in October 2008 when investigators revealed that a company running a ministry Web site selling registration permits to private firms across the country was pocketing 90 percent of the revenue and sharing the remaining 10 percent with a small group of ministry officials and staff.

The Attorney General's Office eventually took PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika, the company that built and ran the site, to court over the matter, accusing it of siphoning off revenue from the sale of business registration permits, causing a loss of at least Rp 410 billion to the state between 2001 and 2008.

Two former ministry officials and a former Sarana executive have already been jailed for their roles in the scandal.

Things started getting really messy when top officials and businesspeople – Yusril, Hartono Tanoesoedibjo, Sarana's founder and Hary's older brother – were implicated in the case.

Business battle

Just days after Hartono was named a suspect, Tutut further escalated the scandal by an n ouncing that she was reclaiming her former television station, TPI, and appointed new management to run the station.

TPI's involvement in the scandal stems from a deal made in 2002 that saw heavily indebted Tutut, then the sole owner of TPI, surrender 75 percent of her share in the station to Hary's company, PT Berkah Karya Bersama, in exchange for his help in managing and cleaning up her debt.

Over time, the partnership between the two soured for several reasons, but most notably, according to Tutut's attorney, Harry Ponto, because of Hary's plan to sell a portion of land in the 250-acre Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, a cultural park in East Jakarta, as a means of acquiring quick cash to rescue the foundering TPI.

Taman Mini was built by Tutut's mother, Tien Suharto, as a means of celebrating Indonesian culture, and, by specific request from the late Tien, was never intended for business purposes. Angered by his plan to sell part of the park, Tutut began trying to regain full control of TPI. She said in 2004 that she was determined to buy back all of Hary's investment in the station.

In March 2005, Tutut severed all relations with Hary and Berkah Karya Bersma and attempted to re-register the station under her name at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, but the online system provided by Sarana didn't accept her request, citing technical glitches.

However, when Hary's camp used the Web site permit registration system provided by older brother Hartono's company for the same purpose later that month, the system worked fine and Hary was listed as the authorized owner of TPI.

Tutut's camp has denied claims that her move to reclaim ownership of the station was linked to Hartono's case.

"Tutut reclaimed TPI because an internal inquiry by the ministry found that she was the legitimate owner. It has nothing to do with the naming of Hary's brother, Hartono, as a suspect," said her lawyer.

Tutut, who has largely withdrawn from politics and business since the May 1998 resignation of her father, found an unlikely ally in Yohanes Waworuntu, the former president director of Sarana who has been sentenced to five years' probation and fined more than Rp 350 billion in connection with the graft case.

"The Web site has become a cash cow for the family. Whenever they found themselves in financial trouble, they came to Sarana for cash," Yohanes told reporters at the AGO. "The revenue generated from the Web site went to the family's companies," he said.

In a recent interview, Hary said that his brother's graft case and Tutut's abrupt move to take over TPI were part of a conspiracy against his business empire, using people like Yohanes.

Political battle

The other major figure dragged down by the case, former Justice Minister Yusril, has stirred up his own set of controversie.

After claiming that Attorney General Hendarman was occupying his position illegally, Yusril told journalists on Friday he had been informed that the attorney general and State Secretary Sudi Silalahi had received $3 million from the ministry Web site.

Yusril claimed that he was named a suspect in the case after nearly two years of investigation only because Hendarman had bowed to pressure from lawmakers "who threatened to reveal the $3 million scandal" unless the former justice minister was implicated.

According to Yusril, Hendarman occupies his post illegally because he was never properly reinstalled to begin his second term last October. Yusril asserts that this makes all his actions as the sitting attorney general illegal.

To make things more complicated, all the seven suspects and those convicted in the case have been divided into four camps.

Yohanes, since being named a suspect in December 2008, has tried to drag the Tanoesoedibjos into the scandal by claiming that the brothers forced him to admit that he was in on the scandal.

He also claimed that, in an apparent attempt to avoid responsibility, the family had appointed a whole group of new employees at Sarana to the help cover the illegal flow of money to the family's companies.

Further, a former director general at the ministry under Yusril, Romli Atmasasmita, who was found guilty in connection with the case and is awaiting a Supreme Court decision on his appeal, has repeatedly said that Yusril should have been the first person to be named a suspect. Romli asserts he helped set up the online service on the direct order of Yusril.

Finally, if Yusril makes good on a promise this entire mess could be linked to yet another scandal: the as yet unresolved PT Bank Century bailout.

Yusril has claimed that he was named a suspect only to distract attention from the Rp 6.7 trillion bailout. "The powers that be are trying to distract the public," he said. "I won't let them get away with it. When the time comes, I'm going to tell everything I know about the bailout."

The public, meanwhile, waits to see what's next.

Whistleblowers pay price for speaking out

Jakarta Post - July 18, 2010

Fitria Sofyani, Jakarta – The scene was familiar and would not be out of place if it took place during the heyday of the New Order authoritarian regime.

An activist at an organozation that dared publish damning reports about a corrupt state institution was brutally attacked by a group of unknown thugs.

It was only days after the report from Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) disclosing fat bank accounts of National Police generals was published by Tempo weekly. That thugs beat and injured Tama Satya Langkun, a member of the ICW investigation team.

As a result of the attack, Tama underwent surgery for a severe head wound on top of bruises from the beating.

But more than the physical wounds, the attack has affected Tama emotionally, which may take a while to heal. "It's still hard for me to go out at night. I feel that I'm in danger when dusk sets," he told The Jakarta Post.

Two days before the attack against Tama, unknown assailants lobbed Molotov cocktails at the editorial office of Tempo weekly on Jl. Proklamasi in Central Jakarta.

Tama may have been luckier because in the past, activists such as poet Widji Tukul, outspoken journalist Fuad Muhammad Syarifuddin, labor activist Marsinah or rights campaigner Munir lost their lives in challenging authority, but what befell Tama is a chilling reminder that more than a decade after ushering in democracy and political freedom, activists, members of the media and whistleblowers still suffer from harassment.

And for ICW, one of the country's most prominent whistleblowers against corruption, the attack on Tama was the climax of what it says as constant intimidation.

"This is the first time an ICW activist suffered from physical assault since it was established in 1998. We have experienced intimidation and threats but nothing physical," national coordinator of ICW Danang Widoyoko told the Post.

In fact, Danang said threats were a part of ICW activists' daily lives in the form of text messages, phone calls or raids at their office. Some activist at ICW local branches throughout the country have suffered the worst forms of intimidation, but national media rarely print news on such harassment, he said.

Still, the attack took him by surprise. "I didn't believe we were susceptible to this type of threat, especially because our country is undergoing democratization," he added.

Danang said that the increasing attacks against activists did not bode well for the country's consolidation of democracy.

An internal ICW document shows 89 cases of violence against activists or individuals who reported graft allegations between 1996 and 2010. Some suffered from physical attacks and intimidation. Others lost their jobs after pursuing their efforts to uncover graft cases.

One such person is Ahmad Dedi Abidin, a government official in Sumedang. In 2003, Dedi made an allegation about the involvement of a Sumedang regent in a corruption case. The whistleblower was removed from his position and his paycheck was withheld by the local government. While an investigation on the corruption case was ongoing, he could not even pay for his children's education.

In 2003, Romo Frans Amanue from Flores was sued by East Flores Regent Felix Fernandez for implicating him in a corruption case. The Catholic priest was given a two-month jail term for defamation, which prompted massive riots in Larantuka, East Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.

The harassment, however, will do little to stop them from uncovering corrupt practices in government institutions, a craft that has been perfected in the past 12 years. "But we will not let intimidation stop us from fighting against corruption," he added.

Another high-profile NGO that has borne the brunt of incessant intimidation is the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), an outfit that has long exposed rights violations perpetrated by members of the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Coordinator of Kontras Usman Hamid said unknown thugs not only hounded him but also members of his family over the past 12 years since his first involvement with the NGO. "Some of these people came to my mother's house," he told the Post earlier this week.

There were also times when he and members of his family were sent death threats – including his kids. "But the perpetrators were never caught let alone prosecuted," Usman said.

Recently Usman had to stave off efforts, albeit more benign ones, to compromise his stance on human rights and he prevailed.

Last month, he made headlines after turning down an offer made by the new chairman of the Democratic Party, Anas Urbaningrum, who wanted him to sit as a member of the party's central board on human rights.

Fellow activists have lauded his move while deploring the decision made by another rights campaigner Rachland Nashidik, who joined Anas' bandwagon.

Usman's decision should be applauded simply because harassment against rights activists has only intensified over the past year. Between 2003 and 2005, Kontras recorded 95 cases of violence against activists. In the past year the commission recorded 23 such incidents.

The commission report also found that families of activists suffered from depression and emotional fatigue. The report attributed the deaths of three parents of Trisakti University students who died in the May 1998 riot to depression. They also suffered from high blood pressure among other health complications.

Usman also noted that recently attacks against activists had also become more desperate. "The attack against Tama could not be more blatant as it was made soon after the report on the bank accounts was released," he said.

Commission insists police come clean on account holders

Jakarta Post - July 18, 2010

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – The head of the Central Information Commission says the police refusal to disclose the identities of police officers with massive bank accounts violates the freedom of information law.

On Friday, police said they had completed their investigation of several suspiciously large bank accounts registered police officers, but refused to disclose the identities of the account holders and the details of the investigation. They said announcing the names violated the freedom of information law, which exempts certain information from being disclosed.

Commission chairman, Ahmad Alamsyah Saragih, disagrees. "The police have to identify the officers because it is part of their obligation as public officials," Ahmad told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The Freedom of Information Law stipulates that information about a public official's bank account should not be exempted from the rule on confidentiality.

In fact, Ahmad said, under the law, public officials who refuse to disclose information that is relevant to the public interest could face a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a Rp 5 million fine.

Ahmad said the police's refusal to disclose the information was because they are not knowledgeable of the law. He called on the public and non-governmental organizations to make official requests to the police regarding the information.

"If the police continue to withhold the information, concerned parties can come to us and we will conduct an examination into the matter," he said.

Ahmad said the process of requesting information from police and obtaining results could take two to three months.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang earlier announced the result of a police internal investigation into the suspicious personal bank accounts.

He said that of the 23 personal bank accounts, 17 had been cleared of any indication of crime. Only two accounts were considered problematic. The media has learned that one of the accounts belonged to Papua Police officer Comr. Martin Reno, who beat charges of alleged involvement in illegal logging.

Edward confirmed one of the accounts belonged to Martin but refused to identify the owner of the other account.

Police are still verifying three other accounts while one account could not be examined further because its owner had passed away, Edward said.

Edward refused to identify any of the account holders, saying that revealing identities of personal bank account owners was a violation of the freedom of information law.

Febri Diansyah of the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said his organization planned to request the information from the police and the Central Information Commission.

"I don't understand why police want to keep the information a secret while on the other hand we also have laws requiring public officials to publicly declare their personal wealth," he said.

University of Indonesia police expert Bambang Widodo Umar questioned the procedures by the police in verifying some of the personal bank accounts.

He said that in addition hiding information from the public, the police's method in clarifying the personal wealth was questionable since there was no transparency from the start.

No arrests yet in activist attack, witnesses claims intimidation

Jakarta Globe - July 17, 2010

Farouk Arnaz, Ismira Lutfia & Zaky Pawas – As the police came up empty-handed on Friday in their probe into recent attack on the editorial office of Tempo magazine and an antigraft activist, investigators were accused of intimidating Tempo witnesses and leading them to say the attack was because of an internal rift.

At a press conference on Friday, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang acknowledged that the police had failed to arrest the attackers of an Indonesia Corruption Watch activist this week, as they had promised on Monday.

"God willing, we will arrest the perpetrators in the near future," he said. "We are working really hard to uncover this case because it has a lot of impact on democracy and press freedom."

ICW researcher Tama Satya Langkun was attacked in the early hours of Thursday by four unidentified men.

Tama, who had been investigating suspicious bank accounts linked to several high-ranking police officers, suffered serious injuries in the brutal assault. The attack came just days after Molotov cocktails were thrown at the office of Tempo, a weekly magazine that also reported on the suspicious bank accounts.

Edward said that police had already found important information related to Tama's case, but declined to go into detail. "I don't want to disturb the investigation by sharing the information."

He promised that police would inform the public as soon as they made an arrest. "We also want to know the motive. So far there is no indication that Tama's assault and the firebombing of the Tempo magazine office were related," he claimed.

Separately, Darwin Aritonang, a lawyer for Tempo, said four witnesses – two security guards, a technician and a telephone operator all working for the magazine – claimed to have been intimidated during their questioning at the Central Jakarta Police headquarters that began Wednesday morning and lasted until Thursday morning.

He said that based on his clients' account, the investigators' questions were pointless and confusing and caused frustration.

"The pressure they felt during the questioning stressed them out, so they couldn't answer the questions properly and they felt like they were led to say only the things the police wanted them to say," Darwin said, adding that one of the witnesses told him he felt intimidated because he had also been receiving anonymous phone calls and had seen a stranger staking out his house.

"They were led to say that the Molotov attack had something to do with an internal rift at Tempo," he added. "I regret that they had go through that ordeal. After all, they are also victims."

Usman Hamid, a coordinator from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said he was aware that an idea to link the Tempo office attack to an internal rift at the magazine had been floating.

"But I doubt it. Even if [the rift exists], police will have to be able to present very solid evidence to support it, especially if the case goes to trial," Usman said.

In response, Central Jakarta Police Chief Sr. Comr. Hamidin dared the accusers to show proof that intimidation took place. "We always record the questioning of witnesses," he said.

Meanwhile, another ICW activist, Adnan Topan Husodo, said he was planning to file a complaint with the police after his car window was smashed at around 9 p.m. on Thursday.

Adnan, the deputy coordinator of the antigraft NGO, said the windshield of his Daihatsu Xenia was broken while parked at the Attorney General's Office residential complex in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta.

"My bag with books and a laptop charger were stolen," he said, adding that five other cars were parked in the area, but only his was broken into.

Adnan also pointed out that other items such as his cell phone and wristwatch were not taken from the car. But he said he did not want to speculate on whether the incident was more than a simple burglary. "I hope it's not related to Tama's case," he said.

Police claim to find little evidence of internal corruption

Jakarta Globe - July 17, 2010

Farouk Arnaz – The National Police announced on Friday that only two of 23 reports it had received from the antimoney laundering watchdog linking police officers to shady financial transactions pointed to criminal activity.

The 23 were among the 831 reports submitted to the police by the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) between 2005 and June this year.

"We've been able to categorize transactions from only two accounts as criminal," National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang said. "The first implicates Comr. Martin Reno, an officer with the Papua Police. He's already been tried and convicted in the case."

Reno was named a bribery suspect in 2005 after police suspected that inordinately large transfers into his bank account were linked to illegal logging activities.

Edward said the second officer implicated in criminal activity was Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji, the National Police's former chief of detectives.

A police source previously told the Jakarta Globe that investigators had traced large money transfers from Medan-based lawyer Johnny Situwanda to Susno.

Susno is currently in custody for allegedly taking a bribe from one of Johnny's clients to expedite an investigation into a business partner.

The controversial former chief of detectives has threatened to blow the whistle on large-scale bribery in the police involving high-ranking officers and case brokers.

Edward declined to go into details about the other 21 reports. "Reports filed by the PPATK can't be made public," he said. "They're categorized as confidential documents, and I for one don't want to break the law by revealing anything about the transactions and or account holders in question."

He also declined to confirm if any of the accounts were among those flagged by Tempo magazine. "The Tempo report didn't name a source, so I can't comment on something that's hazy to begin with," Edward said.

However, he did say police had questioned the officers implicated in the 23 PPATK reports and had concluded that there was nothing amiss in most of what the agency had flagged as suspicious transfers.

"The results of our investigations showed that 17 accounts were clean," he said. "We reported this to the PPATK, which, by the way, insists for some reason that we haven't gotten back to them on this issue."

Edward said the transactions attracting the PPATK's attention in the 17 accounts included the upgrading of rupiah accounts into foreign currency ones, transactions involving family-owned public transportation businesses and plantations, debt repayments, insurance payouts and inheritances.

Of the six remaining reports, investigations into two are still ongoing, while a probe into a third has been dropped, he said. "We called off one of the lines of investigation because the account holder had since died," Edward said.

Police suspended a probe into a fourth report "because the account holder is currently running for mayor" of an unspecified town.

Former minister says he is victim of corruption investigation

Jakarta Globe - July 17, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Former Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, a suspect in a Rp 410 billion ($45.5 million) embezzlement case, says he is being made a scapegoat as part of a sinister political plot involving blackmail and the PT Bank Century bailout.

In a discussion at the House of Representatives on Friday, Yusril said he had been told of a conspiracy to make him the fall guy in the case, which involves a Web site at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights that allowed companies to register online.

Prosecutors say site operator PT Sarana Rekatama Dinamika took 90 percent of the revenue generated by the site, with ministry officials getting 10 percent.

Yusril claimed that Bambang Tri, the brother of Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, had told him that Hendarman had been blackmailed by members of House Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, to name him a suspect.

He said he was told that lawmakers had pressured Hendarman by claiming to have evidence that the attorney general and State Secretary Sudi Silalahi had received a combined $3 million from the Web site.

United Development Party (PPP) lawmaker Ahmad Yani, who was at the discussion, confirmed that he and five other Commission III members had met privately with Hendarman, but refused to discuss the blackmail threat. He did say that Hendarman had told the lawmakers that he had been gunning for Yusril for a long time.

"But if he really got his brother to tell this story to Yusril, then his position must be reviewed because he has clearly bowed to political pressure," he said, adding that Commission III would call a hearing with Hendarman to discuss the matter.

Yusril said this was not his first run-in with attorney general. He said that in 2005, Hendarman, then the head of an antigraft task force, summoned him for questioning in a corruption case. "When I asked him why he'd summoned me, he said it was Sudi's call, based on the president's order," he said.

He added that when he confronted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and threatened to quit the cabinet, the president denied giving any such order.

Yusril also said that shortly after his name topped a survey of potential presidential candidates in 2008, he was again hauled up by the attorney general, this time for questioning in the ministry Web site case, but no charges were pressed.

This is not Yusril's first attack on Hendarman since being named a suspect. He is also challenging the legality of the attorney general's position at the Constitutional Court.

In addition, he claimed that the current charges went back to the controversial Bank Century bailout. "The powers that be are trying everything they can to distract the public from the case," Yusril said. "I won't let them get away with it. When the time comes, I'm going to tell everything I know about the bailout."

War on terror

Lack of critical thinking root of terrorism, says Muslim author

Jakarta Post - July 19, 2010

Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Some point their finger to poverty, others the hostility of US troops in several Muslim countries, but for security analyst and former journalist Noor Huda Ismail, terrorism is mainly caused by the people's failure to think critically.

"The culture that has been ingrained within the Jamaah Islamiyah [JI] environment is that members should be subservient to clerics. As a result, members cannot think critically about clerics' advice and teachings," said Noor Huda during the launching of his first book last week.

Titled My Friend the Terrorist, the book provides first hand information on how a close friend of Noor Huda, who graduated from the Al-Mukmin Islamic traditional boarding school in Ngruki, Surakarta, in 1991, became a radical and joined militant groups such as JI.

Al-Mukmin, led by firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, has been under the public spotlight after some of its alumni, both teachers and students, were found to be involved in a number of terrorist activities throughout the country.

The book follows the journey of Noor Huda and Utomo Pamungkas, widely known as Mubarok, a terrorist convict now serving a life sentence in prison for his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings.

Huda and Mubarok were roommates when they were in Al-Mukmin. "After graduating from Al-Mukmin, I was heading to the West, meeting people from other religions and cultures, who used to be labeled as infidels by our clerics back then and I found that they didn't fit this picture," he said.

Meanwhile, Mubarok was led by his passion to study Islam from its original countries in the Middle East.

Noor Huda said his friend was then stranded in the middle of war-spirited groups of Asian youngsters grouped under the JI in Pakistan and Afghanistan, which were widely recognized as war zones at the time.

"My friend kept learning that his Muslim brothers and sisters were being attacked by infidels. Then, he pledged war on the entities outside Islam," he said.

Noor Huda argued that strong law enforcement was needed to show terrorists the state would not bow down to their will, but changing their views to the fact that Indonesia was not a battlezone was also equally important.

A.M. Hendropriyono, former State Intelligence Agency chief, who attended the book launch, said Huda's way of countering radicalism was promising as it focused on dialogue, not coercion.

"The terrorists are immune to death threats. It would be more promising to ask them to gain a new perspective through constructive dialogue," he said.

Hendro also asked the government to pay serious attention to this particular issue as he had witnessed terrorists transform themselves in many ways.

Terrorists still lurking in Indonesia, police warn

Jakarta Globe - July 17, 2010

Farouk Arnaz & Heru Andriyanto – Despite police successes against terrorist networks, lessons learned over the 12 months since the July 17 twin hotel bombings in Jakarta show that the shadowy terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah has the capacity to keep on regenerating, according to a top counterterrorism official.

Brig. Gen. Tito Karnavian, head of the National Police's counterterrorism unit, says the group, also known as JI, appears to be never short of followers, despite having been the target of nationwide manhunts since the 2002 Bali bombings, and has adapted by changing its attack strategy.

"We have learned that JI has survived and started a new cell," Tito told the Jakarta Globe in an exclusive interview this week. "Noordin M Top was capable of setting a well-planned attack. The bombings also revealed a role played by the Al-Ghuroba cell."

Al-Ghuroba is a group comprising Indonesian students who have studied at fundamentalist schools in Pakistan. Its key members include Abdul Rohim, the son of influential cleric Abu Bakar Bashir; Muhammad Jibriel, the son of radical preacher Abu Jibriel; and Gun-Gun Rusman Gunawan, the younger brother of Hambali, who is being detained by US authorities on terror charges.

In a recent report, the International Crisis Group, a global security watchdog, identified followers of the Bashir-led Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid as a key challenge for Indonesian law enforcers.

"The far bigger challenge for Indonesia is to manage the aspirations of the thousands who join JAT rallies for its public message: That democracy is antithetical to Islam, that only an Islamic state can uphold the faith and that Islamic law must be the source of all justice," the ICG said.

JAT's Jakarta headquarters was raided by police in May and several members were charged with funding a paramilitary training camp uncovered in Aceh in February.

Tito also said that police learned that terrorists were expanding their scope from Western targets to "nearby enemies."

"What I mean by nearby enemies are the Indonesian government, Indonesian Military and National Police, which they regard as representatives of a secular regime and supporters of Western democracy," he said.

"They were also preparing a series of attacks, instead of a single attack in one year. In addition to the July 17 bombings, they were preparing a car-bomb attack on the president," Tito said, adding the plot against the president was uncovered after a raid in Jati Asih, Bekasi, several weeks after the hotel bombings.

Although trials are under way for most of the bombing suspects, Tito said three more suspects arrested in Medan in April were still to be prosecuted. Sources at the police have said the three Medan suspects are Deni Suramto, who allegedly bought the explosives for the hotel attacks; Bayu Sena, the suspected bomb maker; and Pandu Wicaksono.

Tito said other key militants were also being sought. "Among them is Mustofa, alias Abu Tholut. He is the most senior member we know after the Aceh terrorist network was uncovered," he said.

Mustofa was arrested in Semarang for illegal possession of firearms in July 2003. He was sentenced to seven years in jail but walked free under a conditional release in March 2009.

"The road before us is still long and they will continue to regenerate," Tito said.

Islam & religion

Fundamentalism or politics behind sharia-based bylaws?

Jakarta Post - July 21, 2010

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – Indonesia is experiencing growing Islamization both at national and regional levels with the enactment of laws and regulations many believe are inspired by religious teachings, especially Islam.

However, experts are still at odds over whether this is a sign that religious fundamentalism has found its place in politics or that Islam is being used as a political gimmick.

Muslim scholar Siti Musdah Mulia said Tuesday that Islamic fundamentalism had found its way onto the political scene.

"There is a trend [of political parties veering to Islamic fundamentalism], including secular parties such as the Golkar Party and the PDI-P [Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle]," she told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a discussion on religious fundamentalism as a threat to democracy and the rights of women in the country.

Musdah said the symptoms began to manifest themselves during the new order regime "but only surfaced in the democratic era, where everyone had the freedom to express themselves".

"The condition was aggravated by the fact that Indonesians in general still hold a conservative view toward religion. They don't fully grasp the concept of human rights or pluralism," she added.

Concerns have been raised over hundreds of sharia-based bylaws that discriminate against women and minorities. In some regions, the bylaws go to the extent of regulating how women dress, or attempt to regulate individual compliance to God.

Lawyer and women's activist Nursyahbani Katjasungkana told the Post that a recent study found that at least 164 of such bylaws had been imposed in regions across the country.

Muslim intellectual Azyumardi Azra said the bylaws were mostly endorsed by nationalist parties, and not Islam-based parties. "They serve local, pragmatic political interests."

Unlike Musdah, he did not believe that Islamic fundamentalism had begun to infiltrate politics. "I don't think this is an issue in the country's political scene. [Using religious teachings in political campaigns] has proven effective," he said.

The number of Sharia-based bylaws has significantly dropped in the last three to four years, Azyumardi said. "They cannot be implemented and there is too much resistance [from the people], they don't empower society and don't accelerate growth," he added.

Nursyahbani said even two years ago when such bylaws were beginning to mushroom, most Indonesians still wanted a secular constitution as today.

She said many women's rights organizations and NGOs throughout the country had come up with ways to educate women on their rights and train law enforcement officials, including judges, on gender issues.

"Several organizations have trained judges in religious courts, for example, in cases of domestic abuse, teaching them to not see it as a husband's right to discipline his wife, but as a crime," she told the Post.

She said the government must also play a role in disseminating the teachings of progressive Islamic scholars through books to the people at the grass roots level.

"Fundamentalist philosophies are easily found in cheap books sold at every Friday prayer. But those of great, progressive Islamic thinker can only be found in big bookstores and they're expensive," she added.

News outlets quick to joke about Indonesia Mecca mistake

Jakarta Globe - July 20, 2010

Jakarta – International news agencies and newspapers around the world have pounced on an embarrassing mistake by the Indonesian Ulema Council, which was forced to admit last week that it had botched calculations about the direction of Mecca.

In an article titled, "Indonesia's Muslims miss Mecca (by about 1,500 miles)," Toby Green of the Independent writes that, "for more than 200 million Muslims in Indonesia, Mecca just moved."

"Instead of facing Islam's most holy city, a clerical error of astronomical proportions has seen the faithful directing their prayers towards Kenya and southern Somalia."

Green cites the Jakarta Globe's "If You're Praying Toward the West, You're Doing it Wrong" published last week, in which the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) proclaimed that Mecca was actually to the northwest of Indonesia, and not to the west as had been earlier stated.

Wire service The Associated Press wrote in an article titled "Indonesian Muslims facing Africa during prayers" that "people in the world's most populous Muslim nation have been facing Africa – not Mecca – while praying."

The British tabloid, The Sun, however, simply pointed out, with a comparatively mild headline, that "Muslims pray in the wrong direction." CNN ran a similar story.

"Indonesian Muslims turn prayers back to Mecca after 1,000-mile mistake" wrote the Guardian in an article with a subhead that read, "Allah always listens, promise clerics, after cosmography corrects human error that told worshipers to face Somalia."

"Indonesian Muslims have been praying in the wrong direction for months, facing Somalia when they should have been facing Saudi Arabia, the country's highest religious authority said today," the Guardian article began.

Australian newspaper The Herald-Sun titled its article, "Mistake sees Indonesia's faithful sending prayers to Africa."

"Muslims in Indonesia picked up their prayer mats and pointed them to Mecca yesterday after the shock discovery that the nation's Islamic faithful were praying towards Africa by mistake."

Civet brew won't be flushed by fatwa

Jakarta Globe - July 20, 2010

Dessy Sagita, Indonesia – In the face of a suggestion by the nation's main Muslim organizations that a fatwa, or religious edict, be placed against the lauded luwak coffee, the Indonesian Ulema Council has given its blessing to the pricey brew, saying that it was halal, or safe for Muslims to consume.

Luwak coffee, also known as civet coffee, is highly prized because the beans come from the ripest fruits picked by civets and excreted whole after passing though their digestive tracts. Famed for its flavor, luwak coffee is known as the world's most expensive variety, commanding more than $600 per kilogram from online shops.

"We have discussed this matter and we have come to a conclusion that luwak coffee is halal, even though it comes from civet droppings," Ma'ruf Amin, the deputy chairman of the council, which is known as MUI, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.

But Ma'ruf stressed thorough processing of the beans. "The beans have to be washed very clean and must be intact, not smashed, to prevent the feces from entering," he said.

Ma'ruf said MUI would meet with Nahdlatul Ulama, the nation's largest Muslim organization, on Tuesday night to discuss the issue.

NU executives had previously declared the civet coffee as najis, or ritually unclean, meaning that anyone who touched it would have to cleanse his or herself physically and ritually. "Muslims should not feel worried about drinking luwak coffee anymore," he said.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave a gift of civet coffee to then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during a state visit in March 2010. The gift raised some eyebrows in the media at the time, inspiring references to "crapuccino" and "dung diplomacy."

Muslim groups consider fatwa on world's most expensive coffee

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Two of Indonesia's main Muslim organizations are to meet to decide whether or not to issue a fatwa against "kopi luwak," a famed and highly prized coffee bean that has passed through the digestive tract of a civet cat before it is retrieved and roasted.

Ma'aruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI), said it would meet with Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, on Tuesday night to discuss issuing a ban against the flourishing industry.

"A fatwa will hopefully put an end to the growing concerns about kopi luwak," Ma'aruf said.

Kopi Luwak is eaten by a civet cat and expelled in its feces before being roasted. Highly prized for its flavor, kopi luwak is known as the world's most expensive coffee, commanding more than $600 per kilogram from online shops.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave a gift of civet coffee to then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during a state visit in March 2010. The gift raised some eyebrows in the media, inspiring references to "crapuccino" and "dung diplomacy."

NU member Arwani Faishal, meanwhile, said it was his opinion that the coffee was najis. Under Islamic law, najis are things or persons regarded as ritually unclean. "But that is only my personal opinion," Faishal said.

Contact with najis brings a Muslim into a state of ritual impurity (najasat), which requires undergoing purification before performing religious duties, such as regular prayers.

Indonesian Muslim groups have been criticized for issuing a raft of fatwa covering the spectrum of human behavior though they have no legal standing and are often ignored by most.

Indonesian Muslims facing Africa during prayers

Associated Press - July 19, 2010

Jakarta – People in the world's most populous Muslim nation have been facing Africa – not Mecca – while praying.

Indonesia's highest Islamic body acknowledged Monday it made a mistake when issuing an edict in March saying the holy city in Saudi Arabia was to the country's west. It has since asked followers to shift direction slightly northward during their daily prayers.

"After a thorough study with some cosmography and astronomy experts, we learned they've been facing southern Somalia and Kenya," said Ma'ruf Amin, a prominent cleric of the Indonesian Ulema Council, or MUI. "We've revised it now to the northwest."

He said Indonesians need not worry, however: The miscalculation did not affect God's ability to hear their prayers. "God understands that humans make mistakes," he said. "Allah always hears their prayers."

Indonesia is a secular nation of 237 million people, 90 percent of whom are Muslim, most of them moderate. The influential Ulema Council often issues fatwas, or edicts, including several controversial rulings against smoking and yoga.

Many devote Muslims follow such decrees, because ignoring them is considered a sin.

Suburbs a hotbed for religious strife

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Arientha Primanita, Ulma Haryanto & Zaky Pawas – Peace is a word defined differently by certain religious communities and the Bogor administration, according to controversial Islamic sect Ahmadiyah.

"We had already erected steel pillars and the base framework for our mosque when members of certain communities began to protest its construction. The Bogor administration backed them, and requested us to stop building the mosque so that there would be peace in Bogor," Ahmadiyah spokesman Mubarik told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday.

Mubarik said the group ceased construction, but hundreds of public order officers in Bogor on July 12 demolished the foundations to make sure the mosque would not be completed.

Residents had objected to the plan to build the mosque in Cisaladah village, claiming it violated a 2006 decree by the ministries of religious affairs and home affairs on the establishment of houses of worship, which require the approval of local residents before they can be built.

The Ahmadiyah case is but one in a number of incidents targeting minority religions in Bogor, a city that sits just outside Jakarta. But it is not just happening in Bogor. The past year has seen churches closed, Christian events raided and a call to bring a city's bylaws in line with Shariah law – all in cities neighboring the country's capital.

Radicalizing the suburbs

The Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, a human rights organization, says what is happening in Bogor is part of a radicalization phenomenon in suburban regions, including neighboring Bekasi and Tangerang.

"When these attacks were becoming frequent in 2007, we assumed that they were the workings of the PKS [Prosperous Justice Party, an Islam-based political party]," said Ismail Hasani, a Setara researcher.

"But then we studied it more and we learned it was something else. Have you heard of the concept 'people from the villages besieging cities?'?"

According to Setara's research, at least 291 acts of religious violence occurred last year across 12 provinces – West Java had the highest number with 57 incidents, followed by Jakarta with 38. Both Bogor and Bekasi are within West Java.

"These incidents illustrate the political motives of certain organizations to gain supporters in suburban regions bordering Jakarta," Ismail said. "These mass organizations are frequently used for political reasons. For instance, approaching regional elections, mass organizations are used to win more votes."

The destruction of the planned Ahmadiyah mosque stemmed from a promise made by a district head in Bogor prior to his election.

Theophilus Bela, secretary general of Indonesian Committee of Religions for Peace, said freedom to worship was being restricted more openly with help from local governments.

"Building permits are an excuse here to shut down churches or to freeze prayer services in homes," Theo told the Globe. "Christians are of many types, including Pentacostal, the Huria Christian Protestants, Catholics and many others. The government must understand this that each religion has sects and each has a different need. They must be accommodated."

Aside from the characteristics of the local governments, attitudes among residents in these suburbs may also help explain why hard-line groups thrive there.

The Rev. Palti Panjaitan from HKBP (Batak Christian Protestant Church) Filadelfia, whose permit was denied by the government because residents rejected it, claimed that local Islamic leaders told residents they would not receive religious services unless they opposed the church.

"The local residents are mostly field workers and elementary school graduates; they got intimidated easily," he said.

A Bekasi resident who lives near the proposed site of the HKBP Filadelfia church told the Globe she did not object to a church being built there, "as long as they did not try to Christianize our children."

The changing demographics of these cities could also play a part. Palti acknowledged that his congregation members were all migrants from North Sumatra who moved to Bekasi starting in the 1980s.

"Our population grew, as Bekasi is in the outskirts of Jakarta and there are a lot of factories in the area where most people work," he said.

Johny Nelson Simanjuntak, a commissioner for monitoring and investigations at the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said a combination of factors could be contributing to radicalization.

"There is a lack of critical thinking and even weaker law enforcement in these areas. It is growing like an epidemic," he told the Globe.

Weak government response

Regardless of the reasons behind this phenomenon, many are worried over the apparent lack of action to address it.

"The result of the recent congress in Bekasi is a big threat to the nation. That is open provocation," Johny said. He was referring to a recent conservative Islamic congress that discussed a plan to bring Bekasi more in line with its interpretation of Islam.

The congress also called for the creation of a militant youth group within each mosque to fight the ongoing "Christianization" of the city.

Johny added that Komnas HAM had received requests for mediation from several congregations whose churches had been shut down or had building permits rejected. The most recent to be denied was GKI Yasmin church in Bogor.

"So far we still haven't heard any response from Bogor's mayor, but apparently the Bogor Police are insisting on investigating the church for forging residents' signatures, even though some residents have admitted that they retracted their approval under intimidation," Johny said.

The problem with not reining in hard-line groups is that the newly converted are often more radical and conservative than those who have studied the religion for a long period, extremism expert Noor Huda Ismail said.

"Those people used to be drunkards and thugs and they never knew how it felt being a minority," he said.

Noor Huda added that moderate Islamic organizations such as the Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah – the largest Islamic organizations in Indonesia – were overwhelmed by their own size and out of touch with their rank and file. "This void was then filled by FPI [Islamic Defenders Front] and other similar organizations," Noor Huda said.

Habib Salim bin Umar Alatas, FPI's Jakarta leader, defended the group by saying it did not act rashly. On the closure of churches, Habib Salim said that the FPI would look at the permits along with reactions of locals in the neighborhoods.

"We do not act blindly. We act on information and we report to local authorities. After informing local authorities, if they still don't do anything, then we will," Habib Salim said, adding that the FPI's conduct in the field was a warning to the government for neglecting the people's demands.

"There is just no excuse for the Ahmadiyahs because it is our commitment to disband the Ahmadiyahs. Don't say we are against churches. Near our headquarters in Petamburan, West Jakarta, there is a Bethel Church. We live in harmony with those churchgoers."

But Robin Hutasoit, who attends HKBP Pondok Timur Indah in Bekasi, which was locked down in June, said he had not observed this reported harmony.

"When I first moved to Bekasi in 2006, this church had been attacked by an unidentified group of people. We were praying, and they were throwing stones," Robin told the Globe. He said that he had never experienced that sort of "primitive behavior" when he was living in North Jakarta.

"I lived as neighbors with people of different religions in Tanjung Priok [North Jakarta]. I have never faced a problem like now I face in Bekasi. We could pray in peace in Priok."

Anti-Christian Actions, January to June 2010

Jan. 3: 300 people from an unidentified group close access to the HKBP Filadelfia Church in Bekasi over absence of a building permit.

Feb. 5: HKBP Church in Karawang Timur, West Java, sealed forcibly due to absence of permit.

Feb. 7: 100 people protest outside the Pondok Timur Indah Church in Bekasi, saying it is not a house of worship.

Feb. 15: A mass demonstration involving hardline Islamic groups shuts down the Galileo Church in Bekasi, saying that its presence was making locals restless.

Feb. 28: A forum of subdistrict leaders demands the Pondok Timur Indah church in Bekasi stop its activities.

Mar. 11: The Bogor administration, accompanied by members of the Indonesian Muslim Communication Forum, seals off the GKI Yasmin Church after revoking its permit, on account of locals feeling restless.

Apr. 4: Subdistrict chief and police chief of Parung in Bogor warn churchgoers of St. Joannes Baptista Catholic Church to stop its religious activities because locals did not want Good Friday to be celebrated.

Apr. 27: An arson attack occurs on a resort project owned by Christian education foundation BPK Penabur.

Jun. 20: Pondok Timur Indah church in Bekasi is sealed off.

[Source: Indonesian Institute on Democracy and Peace (Setara).]

NU prohibits members from conducting entertainment venue sweeps

Antara News - July 18, 2010

The chief of Nahdlatul Ulama organization, or NU, has called on its members not to conduct sweepings on entertainment venues throughout Indonesia ahead of the Islamic fasting month.

"To keep the situation conducive during the fasting month NU members are called upon not to conduct violence or take the law into their own hands because sweeps or order operations on entertainment venues can only be carried out by the police or other law enforcement agencies," NU's general chairman Said Aqil Siradj said at the commemoration of the 87th anniversary of NU on Saturday.

"NU is an organization that is based on four pillars, namely the unitary state of Indonesia, the 1945 Constitution, the Bhineka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) principles and Pancasila (the five-principle state ideology)," he said.

"If law enforcement agencies are weak we must encourage and support them," he said.

He said NU members must follow the teachings of Prophet Mohammad when he established the state of Madinah. "The concept he used is not for establishing an Islamic state or an Arab state but a civilized state," he said.

He said people could understand the concept by emulating his respect for other religions and promoting equality and consistency in enforcing the law against Muslims or non-Muslims.

"If we insist on conducting sweeps it means we are building a state within a state because we make our own rules," he said.

In view of that he called on all people in the country to participate actively in realizing the four pillars and avoiding violence which has often occured in various parts in the country.

"Right now violence often happens during local elections and distribution of cash handouts to the poor. Some have even died during distribution of alms. This is very concerning and should never happen again," he said.

Extremist & hard-line groups

Lawmaker disgusted by inaction on radicals' raid on meeting

Jakarta Globe - July 23, 2010

Farouk Arnaz – Police have still not arrested any suspects a month after Muslim hard-liners broke up a meeting because they claimed it was a communist gathering, a legislator said on Friday.

"Investigations are going painfully slowly," Ribka Tjiptaning Proletariati, of the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P), said after being questioned as a witness in the case.

"Not a single suspect has been named by the police. It's not just the FPI [Islam Defenders Front] that needs to be punished. The police must also be punished because they did nothing to prevent the FPI from threatening legislators and breaking up the meeting."

The June 24 meeting, called by PDI-P legislators Ribka and Rieke Dyah Ayu Pitaloka in Banyuwangi, East Java, was disrupted by as many as 15 members of the Islamic Ummah Forum because they believed it was a communist gathering. The FPI is alleged to have incited the raid.

The incident was reported to the police and has led to numerous calls from individuals and political organizations to disband hard-line groups.

Ribka presented as evidence video recordings to back her claims that the local police did not lift a hand to prevent the hard- liners from using force to break up the meeting.

Ribka, chairwoman of the House of Representatives' Commission IX overseeing health, and commission member Rieke had been meeting with locals to inform them about free health care services when the members of the Islamic Ummah Forum barged in and demanded the meeting end and the participants, most of whom were from families affiliated in the past to the banned Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), disperse.

"That meeting had nothing to do with the spread of communism," Ribka said.

The police have denied accusations that they have not done enough to prevent hard-line groups, including the FPI, from conducting illegal raids to intimidate others.

A number of rights groups, including Islamic organizations, have urged the police not to tolerate religious hard-liners, which they say use violence and intimidation under the guise of piety.

"We are worried about several recent incidents and the fact that the police have not done anything to stop the violence and uphold the law, no matter which group is involved," said Usman Hamid, a coordinator from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).

The FPI has continued to deny any involvement in the raid.

12 injured as Bogor protest turns ugly

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Zaky Pawas – Public order and police officers in Bogor were injured on Monday after being pelted with rocks by protesters who were demonstrating against a building being torn down for operating as a prayer house without the proper permits.

Police said 10 people had been arrested for instigating the violent clashes, which occurred at about 9 a.m. after hundreds of demonstrators tried to block officers from the Bogor Public Order Office (Satpol PP) from approaching the building in the Bakom area of Limusnunggal village in Cileungsi subdistrict.

Bogor Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Tomex Kurniawan said he did not believe the suspects were from the area.

"They could be paid demonstrators," he said. "They are not locals and we will question them. We have also seized a truck, stones, blocks of wood and bamboo sticks as evidence."

The building had been used by some 200 members of a Pentecostal church for their weekly prayer meetings.

Before the clash, Satpol PP and Bogor Police officers held a dialogue with the protesters, who claimed that they had never received a notice from the city administration regarding the demolition plans. The Satpol PP officers, however, insisted that warning letters had previously been sent.

Despite the violence, the building was torn down by 1 p.m. as the demonstrators looked on. When the dust settled, eight public order officers, three police officers and a resident were left with head injuries as a result of the stone-throwing.

According to Bogor's Satpol PP chief, Dace Supriadi, the building needed to be dismantled because it was violating its existing permit. "The building did not have the permit to serve as a prayer house," he said.

But Hotlan Parlaungan Silaen, a member of the Pentecostal congregation that used the prayer house, insisted the administration was wrong.

"We received 120 signatures from locals who approved the construction of the building to conduct prayers," he said, adding that not a single resident had been disturbed by the prayer meetings in the area. "They all agreed," Hotlan said, as he blamed the police for not remaining neutral in the matter.

According to Hotlan, the Satpol PP officers were willing to back down but the police insisted on the building coming down. "We will take the Bogor administration to court," he said. "The administration is against us minorities. All we want to do is pray. We will now just have to set up tents to pray."

Bogor, a city in the hills to Jakarta's south, has been identified by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace as one of the areas, along with neighboring Bekasi and Tangerang, currently experiencing a "radicalization phenomenon."

According to the human rights group's research, at least 291 acts of religious violence occurred last year across 12 provinces. West Java had the highest number with 57 incidents, followed by Jakarta with 38. Both Bogor and Bekasi are in West Java.

The Bogor administration in March, citing objections from residents, halted construction on and sealed off GKI Yasmin Church, forcing the congregation to hold prayers on the street in front of the building site in West Bogor.

In April, the subdistrict head and police chief of Parung, north of Bogor, warned members of St. Joannes Baptista Catholic Church to stop their religious activities because residents did not want Good Friday to be celebrated there.

Bona Sigalingging, a member of GKI Yasmin Church, said the closures and similar incidents pointed to the marginalization of religious minorities in the area. "Fundamentalist groups seem to be controlling these local administrations," Bona told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.

"This is not about each region acting of its own accord. It feels more and more like systematic discrimination against religious minority groups."

Theophilus Bela, secretary general of the Indonesian Committee of Religions for Peace, has said that freedom to worship is being restricted more openly with help from local governments, with building permits often being used as an excuse to shut down churches or to disrupt prayer services.

Law revision needed to ban violent groups

Jakarta Post - July 17, 2010

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi responded to mounting calls that the government dissolve violent mass organizations, by challenging legislators to revise existing laws.

The 1985 Mass Organizations Law, he said, did not give the government the authority to disband hard-line groups committing acts of violence.

"The law guarantees freedom of association and speech, even if the groups launch violent raids. If the public demands regulation to change the current situation, the House of Representatives must revise the law," Gamawan told The Jakarta Post on Friday, commenting on increasing public unrest over the violent conduct of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI).

Media outlets have reported the acts of violence committed by the group in their raids on gambling dens, brothels and non-Muslim events in the past few years. In the latest incident last month, people clad in FPI gear forcibly broke up a meeting attended by legislators Rieke Diah Pitaloka and Ribka Tjiptaning of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) in Banyuwangi, East Java.

Gamawan said his role as home minister would allow him to issue three warnings before submitting a recommendation to the Supreme Court to disband the group, as stipulated by law.

"We have so far issued the first warning to the organization when it forcibly disbanded a protest organized by pluralist activists and students at the National Monument in 2008," he said. "But afterwards, there were no more incidents so that we didn't issue a second or third warning."

PDI-P legislator Gandjar Pranowo, who is also deputy chairman of the House Commission II on home affairs, said the PDI-P and several parties had proposed a review of the law years ago but that the House had turned it down.

"The key to solving the issue of [violent groups] is not a review of the law, but the government's capacity to educate mass organizations. They would not resort to violence should the Home Ministry do its job properly."

Gandjar called on courts to appropriately handle a lawsuit filed by his colleagues as an effective way to disband the organization, instead of the protracted process needed to revise the law.

"If FPI members were found guilty of committing violence, the court should include disbanding the organization in its verdict," he said.

Meanwhile, speaking on a moratorium on the formation of new regions, Gamawan said the process had to be suspended until the government completed its grand design of the ideal number of provinces, regencies and municipalities.

"I will immediately introduce the grand design to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono before it is unveiled to the public," he said.

Indonesia currently has 33 provinces and 499 regencies and municipalities. Gamawan reiterated the President's recent statement that 80 percent of newly developed regions failed to implement regional autonomy.

Sex & pornography

Indonesian minister dreaming of a pornography-free Ramadan

Jakarta Globe - July 22, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesian Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring says he hopes all pornographic Web sites will be blocked before Ramadan – and is warning that even written sentences could be classified as violating the law.

The outspoken minister from the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) said on Thursday that he hoped the controversial new ministry plan would be enacted before the holy fasting month begins on August 11 so that pornography would not interfere with Islamic religious obligations.

Speaking at the Presidential Palace, Tifatul said the ministry was compelled by the Anti-Pornography Law to "protect citizens from the dangers of pornography." "We are just putting the law into practice," Tifatul said.

He could not say which Web sites the ministry would block but said it would be done on a "massive scale." Tifatul also warned people to be aware of the consequences if they violated the law.

"Please be very careful because one can face legal action just by spreading pornographic sentences because it's part of pornography."

On Wednesday, Tifatul acknowledged that he was aware that blocking all Web sites with pornographic content would be nearly impossible. However, he said, with an aggressive campaign and random checks, the government expected that children would have very limited access to such sites.

"We've started by holding meetings with Internet service providers because they're the ones with the power to grant access to the Internet across Indonesia," he said.

Tifatul has previously said the move was driven by a request from the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) to restrict access to pornography on the Internet. (Antara/JG)

Tifatul stands ground on porn ban despite widespread criticism

Jakarta Globe - July 22, 2010

Dessy Sagita, Jakarta – Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring on Wednesday stressed that he would not back down from his decision to block Internet access to pornographic sites despite public criticism and doubts.

"Some have criticized the plan, but Muslim leaders, Christian priests – they all support this plan," he said during a discussion hosted by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club.

Tifatul, from the conservative Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), had previously said the move was driven by a request from the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) to restrict access to pornography on the Internet.

His decision, he said, was in keeping with the controversial 2008 Anti-Pornography Law. One of its articles states "that the state should protect its citizens from the dangers of pornography."

Tifatul said that he was aware that blocking all Web sites with pornographic content would be nearly impossible. However, he said, with an aggressive campaign and random checks, the government expected that children would have very limited access to such sites.

"We've started by holding meetings with Internet service providers because they're the ones with the power to grant access to the Internet across Indonesia," he said.

Tifatul rejected charges that blocking pornographic Web sites was tantamount to violating freedom of speech or expression. "People can say what they want as long as it doesn't go against the rules, but porn is a totally different thing," he said.

"The state is obliged to protect its citizens, especially children. I'm simply implementing the Constitution," Tifatul said.

He added that he would not have to ban pornographic sites if Indonesians, especially children, would stop accessing them.

"Personally, I believe that it would be much better if people stopped watching porn on their own initiative, not because they're forced to, but the situation is already out of hand," he said.

Tifatul added that a recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology found that of 4,500 high school students, 97 percent had accessed pornography. "Given the margin of error, 100 percent of our teenagers may have accessed porn," he said.

Tifatul also voiced his disappointment over the public's criticism of the multimedia content bill, which he said would help stem the spread of pornography in Indonesia.

"The media acts as though I want to limit freedom of the press with this bill, but in fact the bill doesn't say anything about the press," he said.

Tifatul added that if the multimedia content bill was passed, a content supervisory body would be set up to determine whether any given content was pornographic or offensive. "This is a very democratic bill, so I can't understand why the people are so against it," he said.

Constitutional Court to hear request to beef up porn law

Jakarta Globe - July 21, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran & Nurfika Osman, Jakarta – The highly divisive 2008 Anti-Pornography Law will be back in the Constitutional Court today. But unlike the previous judicial reviews that sought to annul the controversial law, or at least parts of it, this time the applicant wants the court to strengthen it.

Controversial lawyer Farhat Abbas said he had been motivated by the celebrity sex video scandal involving Nazril "Ariel" Irham, Luna Maya and Cut Tari to seek the judicial review.

Article 4 of the law bans people from producing pornographic material, while Article 6 prohibits people from storing or broadcasting it. However, supplementary explanations to the law exclude materials "for personal use and interest."

This is what Farhat, who last month lodged a complaint with police over the videos, wants the court to review, because he claims the supplementary explanations contradict the true meaning of the articles.

"If pornography is for 'personal use,' the actor might be seen as a victim, when in fact pornography exists because of the actors themselves," said Burhanuddin, Farhat's lawyer.

The supplementary explanation has been cited by criminal law expert Edi Hiariej, from Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, as the reason why police should not be able to charge Ariel, Luna and Cut Tari under the Anti-Pornography Law.

"So the controversy over the personal use issue, such as in the Ariel and Luna Maya case, made them appear as if they were the victims," Burhanuddin said.

"But we consider them as the actors who produced pornographic materials and engaged in sexual relations outside of marriage. It is against morality."

He added that though Indonesian law was not based on religion, Indonesia, as a country, was still very religious. "In the context of pornography, there should be no exception, even for husband and wife. These are the seeds of the eventual destruction of morality," he said.

Asked why Farhat had taken it upon himself to rewrite the law books, Burhanuddin said his client ran an NGO that paid special attention to legal cases involving issues of morality, such as pornography.

The controversial 34-year-old Farhat has represented clients such as teenage celebrity model Manohara Odelia Pinot and corruption suspects. He also sought to become the next chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) but was disqualified from the running for being outside the age requirements.

Andy Yentriyani, from the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said Farhat was going too far. "Farhat should be careful with what he says as this could have big implications for the country," she said.

"If that portion [supplementary explanations] is annulled, the country better be ready for the fallout. Should we then conduct door-to-door raids to look at cellphones?

"The porn law has been problematic from the start as legislators were unable to grasp the complexity of pornography. Pros and cons will always appear as it is something that people have multiple views on."

The Anti-Pornography Law has been heard by the Constitutional Court before. In March, a year after it began hearing judicial review requests filed by 47 applicants ranging from representatives of youth groups and churches to housewives, women's activists and legal aid foundations, the court ruled to maintain the law.

The court ruling, however, failed to end the debate over the law, which activists say does little to solve the proliferation of pornography in the country.

On Monday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) that he was ashamed by the widespread distribution of the celebrity sex videos, and sought the help of the council in addressing the problem.

Police claim breakthrough in celebrity sex tape scandal

Jakarta Globe - July 17, 2010

Farouk Arnaz – The National Police believe they have finally found the person responsible for the celebrity sex video scandal that has outraged the country's conservatives and landed a pop star in jail.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Edward Aritonang announced on Friday that the three widely circulated sex videos of Peterpan frontman Nazril "Ariel" Irham were uploaded on the Internet after being stolen from his laptop by the band's music editor.

"The videos were uploaded by 'RJ' who works with Ariel's band. He's a music editor," Edward said. "RJ obtained the tapes from Ariel's laptop, without Ariel's consent or knowledge."

Edward said the police were still investigating RJ's motive after his arrest in Bandung. "RJ is the 10th suspect arrested for allegedly spreading the videos to the public. All of the suspects are already in police custody," he said.

Police had been hunting the person who first uploaded the videos since the scandal broke in early June. Ariel maintained that somebody had stolen his laptop from his home on Jalan Tanjung Asri, in the Antapani area of Bandung, last year.

RJ's arrest, however, does not mean that Ariel and the two women in the videos, actress and model Luna Maya, and gossip show host Cut Tari, who have both been named as suspects, are off the hook.

Ariel has been charged under Article 4, Paragraph 1 of the controversial 2008 Anti-Pornography Law, which bans the production, distribution and trade of pornographic materials. Even if he did not distribute the videos, he can still be charged for producing pornography.

The same goes for Luna and Cut Tari. Edward rejected the argument that the women were only victims. "They can say they're victims, but we can prove from the scenes in the videos that they knew what was going on," he said, adding that the case reports were almost complete and would be handed over to prosecutors soon.

But Eddy Hiariej, a law lecturer at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, has argued that a supplementary explanation of the Anti-Pornography Law excludes production for personal and private possession.

Edward also clarified the confusion over Luna's supposed arrest on Thursday. "It's true that on Thursday morning we said Luna would be arrested for being uncooperative, but we canceled the arrest based on our own considerations," he said.

He denied that public pressure was a factor in the police's seemingly inconsistent decision-making in Luna's custody. "We will not be influenced by public pressure. We work according to the law," he said.

Legislation & parliament

Absentee legislators called out of order

Jakarta Globe - July 23, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Legislators should be ashamed of their poor attendance record at plenary sessions, and must strive to live up to their billing as the people's representatives, political observers said on Thursday in response to new data on absenteeism rates.

Indonesian Survey institute (LSI) political analyst Burhanuddin Muhtadi said low attendance has been a problem for years.

An LSI survey in September 2009 showed only 41.4 percent of respondents considered legislators diligent, while the majority saw them as truants.

"Such behavior is tantamount to treason," Burhanuddin said. "They violate their own ethical codes, wasting taxpayer money, and lie to their constituents."

The House of Representatives Secretariat has just released data on legislators' attendance at plenary sessions since October.

From October to December 2009, National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmakers had the best attendance rate, with 96 percent.

Two other Islam-based parties prop up the other end of the list: the National Awakening Party (PKB) at 86.6 percent and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) at 88.6 percent.

In the House's second sitting period, between January and March 2010, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrats led with a 91.1 percent attendance rate, while the PKB and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) were last with 78.3 percent and 79.9 percent, respectively.

Sebastian Salang, from the group Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi), said that laws in place since 2009 to ensure full attendance at plenary meetings have not been enforced.

A House regulation stipulates that legislators missing three straight plenary meetings are to be publicly denounced.

"In Indonesia, though, this threat is meaningless," Sebastian said. "In any other country legislators would be ashamed of such a denouement, but not here. Maybe we need to put their names up on huge billboards at traffic intersections."

The House's Ethics Council is also authorized to dismiss legislators missing six straight plenary sessions.

"But the Ethics Council is dead in the water right now because of internal squabbling," Sebastian pointed out.

The House defines a plenary session as one where the quorum of at least 281 of the House's 560 legislators are present. However, Sebastian said it was common to see legislators turn up to sign the attendance sheet and then leave.

He added that the payment of Rp 1.5 million ($165) to each legislator attending a meeting where a bill is passed was proving useless.

"They already have so many allowances and facilities that this amount is meaningless to them," he said. House Deputy Speaker Anis Matta, from the PKS, said the poor attendance was not symptomatic of legislators' laziness.

"I believe it's because we do so much work," he said, adding that the PKS was considering punishing absentee legislators.

Marwan Jaffar, from the PKB, said most of the party's legislators came from outside Jakarta and found the capital "not homey enough."

He added they also served in provincial party posts, and had to split their time in the provinces. "But I always remind them to attend plenary meetings or face tough sanctions."

Romahurmuzy, from the United Development Party (PPP), said the low attendance in the first year of the House's sitting was very concerning, as absenteeism was usually a final-year phenomenon.

"We recommend financial incentives based on each legislator's physical attendance at meetings, where the attendance sheet is handed out twice – at the beginning and the end of the meeting," he said.

Democrat Ramadhan Pohan said the president took the issue seriously. "Democrats must have a very good reason for skipping a meeting, and even then they need a note," he said.

The PDI-P's Tjahjo Kumolo agreed that those not planning to attend a meeting should give prior written notice.

Ethics Council chairman Nudirman Munir said the council was currently collecting data on chronically absent legislators with a plan to discipline them.

"The rules are clear, so there's no excuse to keep skipping meetings and not expect to be dismissed," he said. "However, not all legislators do it deliberately. Some have valid reasons, so we need to crosscheck the data with each party to see who's really playing truant."

Nudirman said the errant legislators would then be formally notified of their offense.

House Legislative Body chairman Ignatius Mulyono said it was increasingly difficult to meet the quorum for plenary sessions.

"We're compromising by starting the plenary meetings an hour later, but many legislators still show up late or not at all," he said. "Plus, it doesn't help if any of the various oversight commissions are holding hearings at the same time."

Monday's plenary session barely met the quorum, with only 284 legislators turning up. That figure, Ignatius said, was similar to previous plenary sessions. He added that even then, not all of those who signed the attendance list stayed on for the duration of the meeting.

He said that while he understood some legislators might have double duties in the House, serving on oversight commissions or panels, it should not be an excuse for absences.

"We're elected by the people to serve on their behalf, so it's plain wrong to skip meetings," Ignatius said, adding that poor attendance was a main factor for the lack of legislation passed by the House since last October.

"That's a no-brainer," Ignatius said. "It takes time to pass proper legislation, and if you're not there to deliberate it, what can you expect?"

He called for a revamp of the attendance system by installing fingerprint clock-in devices to ensure legislators really did attend meetings that they claimed to have been present for.

Eva Kusuma Sundari, from the PDI-P, said that while she had skipped plenary meetings in the past, she always had a good reason. "I only did it because I had something else to do that I believed was more important."

She added that legislators' performance should not be assessed only through their attendance record but also through the "significant contributions they make."

"We need to consider what each legislator contributed to a particular bill," Eva said. "What's the point of showing up to a plenary session if you don't say a thing?"

House of Representatives still dragging on passing laws: IBC

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran – Despite its protests to the contrary, the House of Representatives does not appear overly concerned about passing legislation, the Indonesian Budget Center said on Sunday.

The center pointed out that a small portion of the state budget had been allocated for deliberating bills outlined in the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas).

"The budget to support the House's performance reaches Rp 1.22 trillion [$135 million]. But only 14.3 percent of this amount, or just Rp 173.4 billion, has been earmarked for Prolegnas," Roy Salam of the IBC said on Sunday.

Having failed to pass a single bill into law since the House's term began in October, the same month President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono embarked on his second stint in office, the House is hoping to pass at least 17 priority bills by the end of this year.

Initially, it had a goal of approving 70 bills, with 36 drafted by the House and the remainder coming from the government.

"So far they have deliberated just five bills," Roy said. "Lawmakers are failing to work on bills because they can only accommodate their own political interests. They don't care about fulfilling the constitutional duties, which is to pass legislation for the welfare of the general public."

He added that of the budget allocated for Prolegnas, Rp 4.1 billion had been allotted to fight off judicial reviews of laws at the Constitutional Court, where numerous ill-conceived measures have been challenged.

Some articles of each law generally end up being annulled. Recently however, the court voided the National Education Entity law.

Sulastio, director of the Indonesian Parliamentary Center, pointed out that in previous years lawmakers had complained of small budgets for Prolegnas.

"Now, after it has been increased, they still fail to improve their performance. The real problem is actually competence, not the budget."

Sulastio was referring to IBC's statement that even as the budget allocation for deliberating bills listed in the Prolegnas was relatively small at Rp 173.4 billion, it was still 76 times larger than that allocated for the national legislation program in 2005.

"A majority of the newly elected House members are lacking in experience. They also tend to delay the deliberation of bills because once they start, they will in any case be limited by two House working periods [of three months each].

They prefer to settle differences between themselves and the government before taking bills into the deliberation phase," Sulastio said.

"The people's money is being wasted on those who don't understand legislation." Arif Wibowo, a member of the House Legislation Body, said that the slow productivity of the House should be seen from a different perspective.

"Most of the bills that have not been discussed yet are the bills initiated by the government. If the House wants to be pragmatic, we could finish it sooner, but we need long time to debate on a bill so we can in the end produce a law we can be responsible for," Arif said.

"Two working sessions for deliberation is not enough," Arif said, adding that many of the proposed bills to be initiated by the government had not been finished.

Out of the 34 bills written by the House, Arif claimed that 31 have been drafted and deliberations had already begun.

Regional autonomy & government

Government debates failings and successes in Aceh, Papua

Jakarta Globe - July 23, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ismira Lutfia – The government has acknowledged it needs to run more development programs in Papua and Aceh provinces, saying the existing programs are not enough.

The statement was made at a meeting on Friday between the House of Representatives' team to monitor regional autonomy, and a clutch of high officials, including Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto, Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi, Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar and National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri.

Djoko said the situation in Aceh was a little better than in Papua, with the government making good progress on 75 programs stipulated in the August 2005 peace deal.

He also said supporting legislation was already in place, including to establish a communication forum for development programs in the province.

"As result of the programs achieved thus far, the people of Aceh now enjoy better security and political situations," he said.

However, Djoko said several pressing problems required urgent attention, in particular making amends for past human rights violations by the military.

He ruled out the possibility of establishing a truth and reconciliation commission in Aceh to address the issue, pointing out there was no legal basis for it.

"We can't set up a human rights tribunal in Aceh because the prevailing law stipulates such bodies may only be established in five provinces, and Aceh isn't one of them," he said.

Meanwhile, similar development programs have been rolled out in Papua, but the volatile security situation there has limited their impact, Djoko said.

He added that the government was applying the lessons it had learned in Aceh by assigning responsibility for security in Papua to the police force rather than to the military.

He conceded that criticisms in both provinces over the lack of development were justified. Demonstrators in Papua earlier this month demanded an independence referendum similar to the one that saw East Timor secede in 1999. However, Djoko called for patience, saying development would take time.

"It's unfair to expect to have Jakarta-type metropolises in Papua within the next five years," he said. "I believe we've made significant advances over the past five years." He said part of the solution in Papua was for the provincial administration to improve its development coordination and allocate its budget wisely.

Home Affairs Ministry spokesman Saut Situmorang, speaking after Friday's meeting, denounced the Papuan referendum call and said the province's people would be better off sticking with the Jakarta-mandated development programs.

"Rather than moan about wanting a referendum, they should get with the program and propose ways to improve the province," he said. "If Papua's special autonomy needs to be revised, then flag it."

However, legislator Ali Katsela, from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), questioned the government's claims of having made progress.

"In the 10 years that Papua has had regional autonomy, its human resource index has fallen, taking it from 22nd out of 33 provinces to 29th," he said.

Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Indonesia, Cameron Hume, said at a press briefing with visiting US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on Thursday that Aceh had undergone "a remarkable evolution in the past couple of years in terms of peace and peaceful cooperation," citing the relatively incident-free local elections held there during that time. "So I would say it's tremendous progress."

Regions 'misspent' trillions

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Nivell Rayda – The Supreme Audit Agency may have the answer as to why regional areas – particularly new provinces, districts and municipalities – continue to lag behind in terms of development.

Less than 6 percent of the state budget channeled to provincial and district or municipal governments is actually spent on development projects and public services, the agency, known as the BPK, has revealed.

"Most of the funding is spent on government facilities, such as offices and cars," BPK official Rizal Djalil said in a statement on Sunday. "Little is allocated to the direct needs of the people."

Since President Suharto resigned in 1998, seven new provinces and 205 new districts and municipalities have been established. Rizal said these new regional governments still relied heavily on central government funding.

"Every aspect [of the new regions] relies on the central government. Regional income is still not sufficient, not even enough to fund the regional governments' operational budgets," he said.

The findings follow a scathing assessment by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has said that some 80 percent of the newly created administrations are not performing well.

According to Rizal, regional governments should focus on creating jobs and economic independence from Jakarta.

The central government has allocated Rp 344.6 trillion ($38.2 billion) this year to expedite the development of newly established regions. That excludes additional aid for social affairs, education and health, which also reaches hundreds of trillions of rupiah.

To make matters worse, the BPK also indicated that some of the funds earmarked for economic empowerment had been redirected to populist programs aimed at strengthening officials' grip on political power.

Rizal said some funds had been used to finance short-term programs such as providing free basic commodities instead of more strategic programs such as job creation.

A study released by the Partnership for Governance Reform in January reported that provincial governments also seemed to be largely ignorant about the need to fund public health and education.

"Provinces on average allocate only Rp 14,004 per person each year [for public health]," the report said. "Some are as low as under Rp 4,000 per year."

Provinces also failed to meet the 20 percent budget allocation for education mandated by the central government, the study found. Even the biggest spender on education, Riau Islands, which spends Rp 831,860 per student annually, only allocated 17.6 percent of its total budget to education.

Maryati Abdullah, a researcher from the Regional Study and Information Center (Pattiro), said greater regional autonomy had created more opportunities for officials to steal funds due to a lack of financial guidelines and oversight by the state.

"They don't have a standardized supervisory system and, more often than not, there is political interest in overlooking the rampant corruption by local officials because the Regional Legislative Councils are just as corrupt," she said.

Since it was set up in 2003, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has received more than 30,000 complaints from the public about corruption involving local administrations, and hundreds of regional officials have been jailed for graft.

Anies Baswedan, the rector of Paramadina University in Jakarta, said tighter controls were needed to rein in the regions. "The central government has been too lenient," he said. "There is no transparency or accountability for local governments, so they get away easily with graft and neglect."

The Ministry of Home Affairs said in May last year that it was examining the effectiveness of decentralization and preparing new rules on how regions should manage their finances.

Police & law enforcement

Legislators to grill AGO over doubtful claims

Jakarta Post - July 23, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office enters its 50th anniversary facing scrutiny as the House of Representatives Commission III on justice and human rights says it will likely seek clarification on several claims it made.

One of the claims regards recorded telephone conversations between graft suspect Ari Muladi and Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) enforcement deputy Insp. Gen. Ade Rahardja.

Attorney General Hendarman Supandji claimed on Nov. 9, 2009, that the AGO and the police had 64 phone conversation recordings between Ari and Ade. The recordings were used as evidence to charge two KPK deputy chairmen, Chandra M. Hamzah and Bibit Samad Riyanto, with bribery.

Previously, in November 2009, public anger mounted after a recording publicly played at the Constitutional Court allegedly revealed a conspiracy between the AGO, police and Anggodo Widjojo – the younger brother of graft fugitive Anggoro Widjojo – to frame Chandra and Bibit. Anggodo was later named a graft suspect.

However, at a court hearing Tuesday, police commissioner Farman testified under oath that there were no such recordings.

"We are scheduled to discuss this issue in our next hearing with the AGO," House Commission deputy chairman Azis Syamsudin told The Jakarta Post on Thursday when asked about the contradiction between Hendarman's claim and Farman's testimony. The commission plans to hold the hearing on July 29.

Commission member Nasir Djamil said Farman's comments about the recordings being non-existent was an "interesting development". "It means that there is someone who wants to protect Anggodo," Nasir said at the House on Thursday.

The commission also plans to question Hendarman on an issue surrounding a graft case that implicates former justice and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

The graft case centers on an online service initiated and owned by the Justice and Human Rights Ministry during Yusril's tenure in 2001. The website offered public services such as the issuance of notarized acts and the registration of permits.

The contract stipulated that the private company would receive 90 percent of the revenue from the site, and the remainder would go to the ministry's cooperative. Between April 2001 and November 2008, the service generated more than Rp 420 billion in access fees, which the prosecutors said should have gone to state coffers.

Commission chairman Benny Kabur Harman from the Democratic Party said legislators wanted to clarify a statement from former Justice and Human Rights Ministry legal administration directorate general Romli Artasasmita.

Romli, who was sentenced for his role in the case, told a hearing at the House on Thursday that most of the evidence against him was fabricated.

"If what Romli said was true, the verdict against him was not justified," Benny said. "If the verdict was not justified, Romli would be another victim of the country's legal system."

Search is on for a savior for under-fire national police

Jakarta Globe - July 20, 2010

Farouk Arnaz, Indonesia – With the National Police's reputation in tatters, an upcoming leadership change is being seen as an opportunity to help the force win back some of the trust it has lost following a series of public scandals.

Adnan Pandupraja, a member of the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), said on Tuesday that the next head of the force should have a spotless track record and be cleared to take up the post by the country's top graft and human rights watchdogs.

The term of the current National Police chief, Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri, will end on Oct. 10 and names are being canvassed for his replacement, who will then need to be appointed by the president before going before the legislature for approval.

Adnan said the candidates should be cleared for the job by the anti-money laundering agency PPATK, the National Commission on Human Right (Komnas HAM), the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the tax office.

"They must not have a poor record or a bad image with the public," Adnan said. Under the 2002 Police Law, Kompolnas is required to provide background information to the president during the process of appointing or dismissing a police chief.

"I don't know if there will be a candidate who meets our criteria. Whatever the result, we will give the names to the president and let him decide," Adnan said.

The National Police has come under heavy fire this year after a string of high-profile scandals. Its reputation received another blow after it came out with a tepid internal investigation into suspicious bank accounts held by some senior officers.

Adnan said the commission already had eight names to be forwarded as candidates. He declined to name them but did say most had already been floated by media outlets. "We still have enough time" to conduct the selection process, he said.

Media outlets have named National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Yusuf Manggabarani, National Police Internal Affairs chief Comr. Gen. Nanan Soekarna and chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi as possible candidates.

Others who have been mentioned are South Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Oegroseno, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Timur Pradopo, East Java Police chief Insp. Gen Pratiknyo, and Insp. Gen. Imam Sudjarwo and Insp. Gen. Bambang Suparno, who are both currently posted at the Police School.

"You will know who they are when we hold a fit-and-proper test for them. We will call each candidate to attend an open meeting," Adnan said.

A police source, who did not want to be identified, said Nanan Soekarna was the front-runner and it was his job to lose.

"Nanan is being kept behind the scenes because he talks too much. [They] want to reduce the possibility that he might say the wrong thing and create controversy," the source said.

Nanan topped his Police Academy graduating class in 1978. His career prospects were dampened when he was removed as North Sumatra Police chief in February 2009 following the death of the provincial legislative council speaker, Abdul Azis Angkat, who died of a heart attack during a protest police failed to control.

However, Nanan was quickly promoted to National Police spokesman and then again to three-star general when he was named head of the National Police's Internal Affairs division.

No police chief candidates fully clean

Jakarta Post - July 20, 2010

Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The new National Police chief to replace incumbent Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri must posses a commitment to reforming the institution, not only at a bureaucratic level, but mentally as well, legislators say.

"A National Police chief must have a clear vision of how to change the mindset of institution members, from the very bottom. Therefore, we need someone who has a relatively good track record," House Commission III on Law and Human Rights deputy chairman Tjatur Sapto Edi told The Jakarta Post by phone on Monday.

Tjatur, from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said he had used the word "relatively" because none of the current candidates had completely clean records.

Eight names have been proposed for the position, including current deputy chief Comr. Gen. Yusuf Manggabarani, general supervision inspector Comr. Gen. Nanan Sukarna, chief detective Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi, North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Oegroseno, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Timur Pradopo, training and development chief Insp. Gen. Imam Sudjarwo, East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Pratiknyo and Police School for Leadership (Sespim) lecturer Insp. Gen. Bambang Suparno.

Tjatur said each candidate had good and bad elements in their track records.

"For example, during his tenure as West Kalimantan Police chief, Nanan demonstrated his commitment to corruption eradication when he obligated all officers to wear a badge saying "I am against corruption".

But in North Sumatra there was an incident in which a regional legislative council speaker was killed under Nanan's supervision as the chief of police of that region," he said.

Previously, Nanan had been tipped as the strongest and perhaps sole candidate. However, later developments saw new figures begin to emerge.

Indonesia Police Watch (IPW) president Neta S. Pane earlier said Suparno could be the strongest rival for Nanan, because the lecturer was clearly Bambang's preferred candidate.

Suparno, however, was recently among several high-ranking officers reported by Tempo magazine for having a suspicious bank account containing billions of rupiah.

Separately, one of the House deputy speakers, Pramono Anung from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), urged the police to resolve the bank account case as quickly as possible to prevent any assumptions that it was being used to prevent some candidates from being elected as the new chief.

"A new case is always unravelled ahead of any police chief replacement. So, this latest case must be solved as soon as possible," Pramono said.

The bank account case is the latest blow to the force in recent times. Previously, the police were involved in a feud with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), during which it was made known to the public that numerous police officers had conspired with Anggodo Widjojo, the younger brother of fugitive graft suspect Anggoro Widjojo, to frame two KPK deputy chairmen with bribery.

The feud cost Comr. Gen. Susno Duadji his job as the National Police chief detective Susno subsequently revealed case brokering within the institution, which brought the National Police further under public scrutiny.

Mob kills thief for attempting to steal motorcycle

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Zaky Pawas & Kinanti Pinta Karana, Tangerang – An Indonesian motorcycle thief was captured and beaten to death by an enraged mob in Banten on Sunday night.

Jakarta Police Spokesman Snr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar identified the deceased as Yadi Setiawan, 22. Boy said Yadi had hailed an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driven by Uday at the Binong housing complex in Tangerang and asked to be driven to Kampung Cadas Rancagong in Legok.

After arriving at the agreed destination, Yadi got off the ojek and pretended to make a phone call before attacking Uday with a piece of wood.

Yadi attempted to drive off but was caught by locals, who killed him. Police would not say if they would charge anyone in relation to the murder.

Mohammad Asad, a social psychologist from Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta, told the Globe that such instances of mob violence were related to the public's distrust of the police.

"The public has their own logic to take the law into their own hands. It is triggered by many factors, including their distrust of the law enforcement agents," Asad said.

He pointed out that the "public logic" was founded from their own experiences in dealing with the police.

"There is a stigma that if you follow the legal procedure to report crime, you'll end up causing troubles for yourself. There is a social cost, for example, you have to attend the court hearing if the case makes it to court," he said.

He said that in most cases, mob beatings were a not an individual decision. "This is a consensus among members of the public based on their own logic that beating crooks or thieves is legal. Not only thieves but the ritual of stripping couples who are caught having sex outside marriage," Asad said.

He encouraged the police to educate the public about the matter. "There should be a kind of encouragement from the police to educate the public, starting from the smallest neighborhood units and ask people to hand in thieves and crooks to the police and avoid taking matters into their own hands," he said.

Alleged sexual assault another Satpol disgrace

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Arientha Primanita & Zaky Pawas – The Public Order Agency is again in hot water after two of its officers were arrested by police in Central Jakarta on Saturday morning for allegedly extorting two teenagers and forcing one of them to perform oral sex.

Effendi Anas, chief of the agency, also known as Satpol PP, said the accused officers, identified as Cipto Ariyanto, 26, and Suharyanto, 37, were currently being detained and interrogated by Gambir Police.

"They are a disgrace to the entire organization," Effendi told the Jakarta Globe on Sunday. "They have made a fatal mistake. They will most likely be fired."

Effendi said he would soon meet with the chief of the city's personnel agency to discuss action to be taken against the officers, who had been stationed at the National Monument (Monas) at Central Jakarta's Merdeka Square.

"I shall withdraw all Satpol PP officers assigned to Monas for re-evaluation. Once they have undergone the review, I will then decide who will be reassigned to Monas and who shall be transferred," Effendi said, adding that he would personally oversee the review.

Gambir Police chief detective Comr. Mustakim said the alleged offense took place at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, when both Cipto and Suharyanto were making their regular rounds at the monument.

He said the pair came upon two teenagers, a 16-year-old boy and 15-year-old girl, at the park and demanded they show them their identity cards.

The teenagers, however, only had letters stating that they were visitors from Cilacap, Central Java. The officers then allegedly intimidated them by saying they would have to be detained at the Kedoya shelter in West Jakarta, Mustakim said.

He said the teenagers were also ordered to run around Monas 10 times but had refused. The officers then reportedly told them they had to pay a fine, but the teenagers had only Rp 40,000 ($4.50) on them.

"Suharyanto then took the girl to the monument, saying that he wanted to take down her details. However, he then forced her to perform oral sex on him," Mustakim said, adding that the girl said she could not refuse because Suharyanto was threatening her.

After the incident, the girl was allowed to leave. In tears, she reportedly told an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver about her ordeal and he drove her to the Gambir Police station.

After the girl filed a report, Mustakim said the Satpol officers were arrested. "They admitted what they had done. They were not under the influence – they were not drunk," he said.

Suharyanto reportedly admitted to forcing the girl to perform oral sex on him because she was "quite pretty, according to Suharyanto," Mustakim said.

Police detectives seized Suharyanto's pants and T-shirt as evidence after traces of semen were found. Mustakim said Cipto would be charged with extortion, while Suharyanto would be charged with sexual assault. Both charges carry a maximum jail term of nine years.

Meanwhile, City Council Deputy Speaker Triwisaksana said the Jakarta Satpol PP chief should do everything in his power to guarantee that such an incident never occurred again.

"This is outrageous. They must be fired," he said. "The Satpol PP chief must impose heavy sanctions on these men. They were supposed to be working on improving their image, particularly after the Tanjung Priok riots."

The bloody unrest in North Jakarta on April 14 saw local residents clash violently with 1,750 Satpol PP officers who had attempted to clear buildings around the tomb of a respected 18th-century Muslim missionary located on disputed land. Three officers died in the clashes.

Azas Tigor Nainggolan, from the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta), urged Effendi to take more action over the incident. "The controls over assignment, performance and recruitment needs to be tightened," he said.

He said visiting hours to Monas had been limited to midnight since November, and yet people were still being allowed into the park after hours. "More lights must be added to Monas so that it can be safe," he added.

Mining & energy

Gas explosion victims fall through government cracks

Jakarta Globe - July 22, 2010

Stephanie Riady, Jakarta – On the fateful Tuesday morning last week, an LPG gas cylinder explosion claimed the life of Muhammad Sofyan's beloved wife and left him fighting for his life with horrific burns to 35 percent of his body.

Such tragic cases, however, are not unusual. The Center of Public Interest Studies (Puskepi) has stated that there have been 78 recorded explosions so far this year, up from a total of 50 cases for all of 2009.

What is unusual is that Sofyan and his four surviving daughters that he must now care for alone have been given no financial assistance by state oil and gas company Pertamina.

The reason: The explosion in their Tangerang home was caused by a 12 kilogram, not a state-subsidized three kilogram, LPG cylinder.

"We have been told that we are not eligible for reimbursements because the insurance only covers explosions caused by three kilogram LPG cylinders," Sofyan's second eldest daughter, Yeni Yuniarti, told the Jakarta Globe.

Not only has the explosion torn the family apart, but the hospital bills that Sofyan, a small-scale entrepreneur, must pay are also proving crippling – the cost of the operations at state-owned Gatot Subroto Hospital in Jakarta will cost at least Rp 100 million ($11,000).

Yeni, 25, also a small entrepreneur, said the family home had been left in a shambles – the explosion that claimed the life of her mother had knocked over one of the house's brick walls, blown the roof off and left much of the furniture badly charred.

With the breadwinner of the family debilitated, Yeni has been forced to rely on the kindness of neighbors to help pay for the education of two of her younger sisters, Sisilahwati and Cindy, who are 12th and 7th graders respectively.

Pertamina has coughed up Rp 7.5 million to compensate for the death of Nursiah, Sofyan's wife, a fraction of the required amount.

Yeni said that after she appealed to Pertamina, they promised to supply an additional Rp 12.5 million compensation for the death, and additional support on a case-by-case basis.

"I went to Pertamina and asked [for the money], because my father's treatment requires a down payment of Rp 15 million, and we simply don't have it right now."

The sisters have vowed to make sure their father gets the medical care he so badly needs.

"We will do whatever it takes to get that money needed for my father's treatment," Yeni says. "I never ask money for small little things, not even for my father's medicine, but I pray that officials will at least help me finance his operations."

What is a life worth?

Pertamina spokeswoman Wianda Pusponegoro confirmed that Pertamina's government-mandated insurance policy only applied to those who used three kilogram LPG cylinders, which was part of the government's move in 2007 to shift from the use of petroleum to LPG in the household.

For three kilogram gas cylinder explosions, Pertamina pay a maximum of Rp 25 million for a death or permanent injury, Rp 25 million for hospital care, Rp 2 million for a funeral and Rp 100 million for material damage. The company has previously stated that is has so far paid out Rp 3 billion to victims.

Wianda said the compensation package was also dependent on the cause of the blast. "Our insurance program does not include 12 kilogram tanks because these tanks have been around and fine since the 1970s," Wianda said.

Furthermore, the program targeted those who were less financially well off, she says. Wianda said that while Pertamina will continue to provide assistance on a case-by-case basis and "any help beyond this is voluntary and out of Pertamina's etiquette of good will."

"If something happens, let us know, and we will discuss it with the leaders in charge."

Wianda, however, said that Pertamina had unfairly been blamed for the explosions. "Pertamina is only responsible for filling and distributing the tanks. Most incidents are caused by defects in the tanks and hoses – and we source these from outside."

Pertamina policy criticized

Pertamina's stance has been criticized as being inadequate. On Wednesday, members of the Indonesian National Committee of Youth (KNPI) peacefully demonstrated outside Pertamina headquarters in Central Jakarta, holding banners demanding that Pertamina take greater responsibility.

Another victim, Iswarni, said that though his son had lost his wife and home and suffered terrible burns after a three kilogram cylinder exploded in his Jakarta home in April, the family had been forced to sell a property in East Java to cover the medical expenses and cost of repairing the house.

Pertamina has since reimbursed the family for their expenses.

Iswarni, whose hands are badly burned and stiff, said he had two wishes. "First, I would like to fully recover. Secondly, I would like to be given some money to buy a drinks stand."

The list of grieving victims continues. Mulyati, whose five-year-old son Zidan Gilbran was badly disfigured as he passed Iswarni's home when the cylinder exploded, said she prayed Pertamina would pay for the plastic surgery for his face.

Meeting on gas explosions canceled due to key officials' absence

Jakarta Globe - July 21, 2010

Anita Rachman & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – The government was criticized on Tuesday for not taking the spate of gas cylinder explosions seriously, as a planned meeting on the issue with lawmakers had to be canceled due to the absence of Energy Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh and National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Ito Sumardi.

House of Representatives Commission VII, overseeing energy, was scheduled to meet with Darwin, Ito, the president director of state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina, Karen Agustiawan, and Agung Laksono, the coordinating minister for people's welfare, to discuss possible solutions to the explosions.

However, only Karen showed up. "The energy minister sent me a short message, saying that he was not feeling well, that he was tired after attending yesterday's meeting," said Effendi Simbolon, Commission VII deputy chairman.

On Monday, Commission VII met several top officials, including Darwin, to discuss the electricity rate hikes. "I don't understand," Effendi said. "I also attended the meeting, but I am feeling OK."

Effendi said Agung was not in the country at the moment. He added that he had not heard from the police about Ito's absence.

High-ranking officials from the energy and people's welfare ministries showed up to represent their bosses, but several lawmakers said the meeting couldn't go on without Darwin, a crucial policy maker and key to finding a solution to the explosions. The meeting was rescheduled for Thursday.

Tulus Abad, from the Indonesian Consumer Protection Foundation (YLKI), said Tuesday's canceled meeting was typical of the official response to the explosion.

"It shows how the government is not serious about handling this problem, which in fact has already become a crisis. The response from ministers has been very poor," he said.

Tulus said it was urgent that officials find a solution. "Moving back to kerosene is not the right move," Tulus said, referring to the widely expressed sentiment among consumers wanting to switch back to kerosene out of fear of the deadly LPG cylinder explosions.

The government and Pertamina have announced various plans to address the explosions involving three-kilogram gas cylinders, tens of millions of which have been distributed since 2006 under a program to reduce fuel subsidies by swapping kerosene for cheaper liquefied petroleum gas. But the explosions continue and the number of victims is rising.

Effendi, however, said Tuesday's meeting was not the only one called to discuss the explosions.

He said Commission VII had discussed the problem with the Energy Ministry at a June 7 meeting, resulting in the House recommending that the government conduct a transparent investigation into the explosions and report the results to the legislature and the public.

"We also want a detailed explanation on the explosions and all the data, including the victims, places where the accidents happened and losses," he said.

Satya Widya Yudha, another Commission VII member, said this week that at least 20 lawmakers from various parties had agreed to sign a petition proposing the establishment of a special team to investigate the explosions.

Power hike threatens small-scale enterprises

Jakarta Post - July 21, 2010

Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta – Some 400,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Yogyakarta province face collapse due to electricity rate hikes that have made them less competitive, according to one business association.

Chairman of the association of Yogyakarta SMEs, Prasetyo Atmosutejo, said on Tuesday that the increase to the electricity tariff would increase production costs by 10 to 15 percent, affecting businesses in direct competition with similar imported products from China. "Even now there are many SMEs that are unable to compete with Chinese products," Prasetyo said.

Tohari, an artisan, said the hike deals a further blow to his business, which already struggles against the influx of Chinese products in the wake of the implementation of ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA).

"Unless there is political will from the government, it's just a matter of time for the handicraft industry and SMEs to die out completely," he said.

He said he could previously expect sales of over Rp 25 million a month, but now only makes about Rp 15 million in sales. "The hike in the electricity tariff will make us suffer further," he added.

Claiming to have been in the earthenware industry since 1992, Tohari said the main problem with the handicraft industry was the difficulty remaining competitive. Complicated export bureaucracy has made Indonesian products less competitive on the international market.

Prasetyo said his organization would ask for support from Yogyakarta Governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X to save the province's SMEs, which make up 99 percent of businesses in the province.

"Without protection, SMEs in Yogyakarta province will have no space to move and will most probably go bankrupt," Prasetyo said.

The condition, according to Prasetyo, had been worsened as most businesses in the province had just recovered from the devastating 2006 earthquake. Over 3,200 have not yet paid off a combined debt of Rp 75 billion because they have yet been able to restart production since the earthquake destroyed their warehouses and factories.

Indonesian government puts cap on electricity rate hike

Jakarta Globe - July 20, 2010

Camelia Pasandaran, Faisal Maliki Baskoro, Arti Ekawati & Dion Bisara, Jakarta – The government on Monday vowed to cap an electricity rate increase for industrial users at 18 percent.

Hata Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy, said most industries would see an increase of between 12 percent and 15 percent, as outlined when the rate hike was passed last month.

"Only a small number will see a price hike that reaches 18 percent," the coordinating minister said at the State Palace.

Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the rate hike was an unavoidable "bitter option," and warned companies not to take advantage of the situation by introducing excessive price increases on goods and services for consumers.

He said the rate hike was not too severe for companies, and that the government had already considered its impact on production costs.

"It is morally unacceptable for companies to take advantage of the situation by doubling [prices] despite the fact that the actual increase is relatively small," Yudhoyono said. He said he had instructed Hatta to ensure the rate increase by PLN would not make the public suffer.

"I will not be reluctant in warning those who heartlessly increase the cost of production, goods or services more than the proper rate," he said.

Sofyan Wanandi, chairman of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo), said an estimated 60 business associations had agreed to delay any price increases or layoffs as a result of the rate bump until the situation was clarified, or until Aug. 1, when they were scheduled to receive their power bills.

Erwin Aksa, chairman of the Indonesian Young Entrepreneurs Association, said on Monday that the association's members could accept a cap of 18 percent.

Erwin, president director of cement producer Bosowa Production, said the electricity rate for the cement industry had soared by 40 percent, and if unchanged would lead to a price increase of up to 15 percent. "Electricity costs account for roughly 25 percent of production cost," he said.

The House of Representatives last month approved an Energy Ministry decree enabling state utility PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara to raise rates.

The rate hike was intended to enable PLN, which has been forced to sell electricity at below costs for years, to raise revenue and invest in the nation's ailing power infrastructure. The government electricity subsidy was Rp 56 trillion ($6.2 billion) last year alone.

However, the government promised a rate hike of between 6 percent and 15 percent for industrial users, and was later forced to acknowledge that some rates had climbed by 40 percent, while some industries claimed their rates soared by 80 percent or had even doubled.

The government blamed "extra variable fees" for the discrepancy. These fees impose additional charges for large industries during peak usage hours and for those that exceed average consumption levels.

Effendi Simbolon, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker and deputy chairman of House of Representatives Commission VII, which deals with energy affairs, said the commission would support a cap at 18 percent if businesses agreed.

He also urged the government to issue a presidential decree to enact the rate hike, instead of the existing Energy Ministry decree. He said a presidential decree was needed because any rate hike must supersede a presidential decree establishing the existing rates, and a ministerial decree could not do that legally.

"The ministerial decree can be considered illegal as the [existing] presidential decree is superior to the ministerial decree. A ministerial decree can't cancel out a presidential decree," he said.

"If PLN insists on using the ministerial decree to calculate monthly power rates, the rates can be considered illegal and an act of corruption."

Economy & investment

Transportation remains major issue for investors

Jakarta Post - July 21, 2010

Jakarta – Indonesia's target to achieve economic growth of 7 percent a year within the next few years will be difficult to reach if no significant improvement is made in the country's transportation system, an economist says.

World Bank economist Sjamsu Rahardja said Tuesday that domestic connectivity remained a major challenge for investors doing business in Indonesia. "We may see a 7 percent economic growth if we can have improved connectivity within the country," he said after a seminar.

Citing a statement last year by Vice President Boediono, he said connectivity was a critical problem that should be quickly addressed. "We cannot go further without resolving connectivity problems," he said.

Apart from the country's resiliency amid the recent global financial crisis, he said Indonesia should make greater efforts to better improve its current achievements.

"Indonesia can get away unscathed from the recent crisis. Its economic growth is quite stable, which is a good point," he said, citing two other points proving Indonesia's resiliency – an improved fiscal indicator and a reduction in the poverty rate.

"The question is, what do we want to see next: Indonesia floating or rising? If we want to keep rising, then we will have to move faster to be able to enter a new prestigious category: a middle- income country," he said.

He said that Indonesia was now moving from a lower-middle income towards middle income. "In this situation, higher demand for supporting services and domestic connectivity will usually emerge. I think the government should better facilitate so service providers can easily expand their businesses and investments," he said.

Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) vice chairman for investment and communication Chris Kanter said infrastructure should be improved due to its important role in attracting investment. Without improved infrastructure, he said, it would be difficult to increase investments.

"We know that many investors have shown interest in investing in Indonesia. But many of them are still concerned about the lack of infrastructure, which they see as one of the biggest obstacles. So they wait and see," he said, adding that improved connectivity might bring benefits such as lower and more stable prices for goods and services and wider market access leading to improve competitiveness of Indonesian products. (ebf)

Four reasons why Indonesia's infrastructure is on shaky ground

Jakarta Globe - July 19, 2010

Latif Adam – Well-developed infrastructure has been a key factor in China's success in achieving high and sustained economic growth.

Beijing's decision to allocate massive spending on infrastructure since the early 1980s has contributed significantly to the country's improved competitiveness. The resulting development helped various sectors to reduce transportation costs, strengthen distribution networks and improve efficiency in the production process. The result: Today a number of Chinese products can compete in both international and local markets.

By contrast, the development of infrastructure in Indonesia has sputtered, hurting the country's competitiveness. Several studies have concluded that poor infrastructure has been a major constraint achieving high and sustained economic growth in Indonesia.

For example, a 2005 World Bank study reported 900 businesses as saying they lost 4 percent of their sales due to bad transportation and another 6 percent due to inadequate energy infrastructure.

Several factors are responsible for the low quality of Indonesia's infrastructure. First, the government's commitment to develop and maintain infrastructure is relatively low. This is indicated by the decrease in the country's infrastructure spending.

Indeed, the ratio of infrastructure spending to GDP has dropped steadily from 3.7 percent in 1999 to 3.6 percent in 2003, 2.9 percent in 2008 and only 1.5 percent in 2009.

Second, infrastructure spending is poorly allocated. The spending is, in large part, allocated for consulting services and planning, monitoring and supervising costs. This, in turn, reduces direct spending on physical infrastructure.

Third, the realization of infrastructure spending is very slow and often delayed. For example, in 2009 infrastructure spending managed by the Ministry of Public Works only accounted for 49 percent of the total budget of Rp 35 trillion ($3.8 billion) through September.

The ministry thus had a mere three months to spend the balance (Rp 17.9 trillion). When the process is this rushed, infrastructure project are unlikely to turn out well.

Fourth, the government has rules and regulations to maintain the quality of infrastructure, but enforcement is weak. For example, the government prohibits vehicles over a certain weight from operating on some roads.

But in many cases, the government has proved reluctant to take legal action against vehicles in violation of this rule, leading to continued violations. The end result is that roads' integrity cannot be maintained.

From an economic point of view, most infrastructure can be classified as public goods that require huge expenses to develop with a low rate of return on investment and high risks.

Hence, the development and provision of infrastructure should ideally be the responsibility of the government. However, low fiscal capacity has hampered the government's ability to play its role.

Moreover, a lack of commitment on the part of the government to develop infrastructure gradually over the last few years has resulted in accumulating problems and a growing price tag to fix them.

If we assume an appropriate level of infrastructure budgeting is 5 percent of GDP per year, in 2014 it will require Rp 1,429 trillion.

The government will not be able to provide this huge amount of funding, which would put pressure on the government's fiscal sustainability because of the high cost of subsidies and debt repayment.

Thus, the government should mobilize the private sector to participate in developing infrastructure.

To be fair, the government has tried to encourage the private sector to engage in infrastructure development. For example, through the Indonesia Infrastructure Summit in 2005 and 2006, the government offered more than 100 projects to the private sector. Unfortunately, however, the response was unimpressive.

Recently, the government tried to attract private sector investment by establishing PT Sarana Multi Infrasruktur and PT Penjaminan Infratruktur Indonesia.

The former is responsible for providing loans to the private sector involved in infrastructure projects, while the latter provides a financial guarantee if the projects require more funding than initially projected in order to complete.

While the government deserves praise for establishing these two organizations, it needs go beyond funding issues if it wishes to attract private-sector investment to infrastructure projects.

First, most infrastructure projects do not have regulations in place. This discourages the private sector, which sees the projects as uncertain and risky. Second, the government should harmonize all the different rules and regulations that only create uncertainty.

For example, to address the issue of speculation surrounding land acquisitions, the Ministry of Finance issued a decree in 2006 that put in place a price-capping mechanism. However, this decree conflicts with a 2005 presidential decree that says owners of land taken by the government for public purposes are due fair compensation based on the actual market value of the land.

Third, infrastructure projects are high risk in nature: They are long-term investments with a low rate of return on investment and high externality. Thus, the government should provide both fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to offset risks.

Finally, the government should establish a task force to monitor the allocation of infrastructure spending. The task force would be responsible for ensuring the spending does not, in large part, go to unnecessary posts, like planning, monitoring and supervising.

The task force would also be responsible for reducing mark-ups and bribery when a project is tendered to the private sector.

[Latif Adam is a researcher at the Economic Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).]

Why the interest rates on bank lending remain high

Jakarta Post - July 19, 2010

Winarno Zain, Jakarta – The decision by the Bank Indonesia (BI) Board of Governors to maintain its current benchmark interest rate at 6.5 percent in their last meeting was not surprising because the inflation rate, despite a spike in June, is still overall benign.

BI's concern has now shifted to the high interest rates on bank loans that still have to be paid by Indonesian businesses.

Acting BI Governor Darmin Nasution announced after the meeting that BI is taking measures that would force banks to lower their interest rates. Complaints have been voiced by Indonesian businesses for some time, that high rates of interest would discourage investment and erode their competitiveness.

The persistent high interest rates that are still being charged by banks remain a sticking point in the overall BI monetary policy.

It is hard to understand why, after BI cut its benchmark rates five times between mid of 2008 and August 2009 by 300 basis points, banks have not cut their interest rates.

Bank lending rates currently stand between 16-18 percent, the highest in the region, and amid weak and uncertain global economic recovery, this could stifle Indonesian corporate sector in their drive for further growth.

But even if BI took the measures it would not mean that banks would reduce their lending rates immediately.

Efforts to reduce bank lending rates, especially in Indonesia, are a long-term process, so it could take some time before we see banks actually responding to calls for that to happen. There are several reasons why reducing bank lending rates is a long-term process.

The first reason has to do with the market structure of bank loans. There are now 121 banks operating in Indonesia, but most loans come only from a few of the biggest banks.

Latest BI statistics show that in the March quarter this year, five state-owned banks contributed 36 percent of total bank loans. If we extend the review further, it is clear that the loan distribution among banks become highly skewed.

Around 70 percent of bank loans are provided by 14 largest banks, representing only 11 percent of total number of banks. This seemingly oligopolistic structure of bank lending market, mean that there is little competition, as these largest banks wield power in setting rates.

Because these banks charge high lending rates, their profit rose considerably. In 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, Indonesian banks managed to reap 28 percent more profit from previous year to Rp 61.8 trillion.

Last year, Bank Mandiri, the largest bank in the country earned Rp 7.5 trillion net profit, a 35 percent increase from previous year.

The net profit of Bank Central Asia (BCA) the largest private bank in the country amounted to Rp 8.8 trillion, 30 percent more than previous year. This year, bank profits are poised to again grow strongly.

In the first quarter of this year, the net profit of Bank Mandiri jumped by 43 percent while the state saving bank (BTN), which specializes in providing mortgages, experienced a 70 percent jump in net profits.

No wonder then that the net interest margin (NIM) – defined as the difference between interest earned and interest paid expressed as a percentage of earning assets – of Indonesian banks at 11.9 percent was the highest in the region, which sits at 3-4 percent on average.

When a bank sets its interest rates, it has to factor in several risk premiums above the cost of their loan. In Indonesia, the biggest risk premium in determining interest rates is inflation.

Historically, inflation in Indonesia is high and volatile, so it is difficult for banks to determine risk premiums from inflation with certainty. Default risk amid weak economic growth, coupled with legal uncertainty, are additional risks that banks have to face in extending loans.

They have to create a buffer to protect them against risk uncertainty, thus the interest rate they set tend to be on the high side.

The other factor that makes lending rates tend to be high is the high dependency of corporate financing on bank lending. "The persistent high interest rates that are still being charged by banks remain a sticking point in the overall BI monetary policy."

Unlike in neighboring countries, where capital markets have played an important role in corporate financing, in Indonesia, banks provide 80 percent of corporate financing. Stocks and bonds market remain a fraction of corporate financing, and do not pose credible competition to banks.

Capital market and non-banks financial institutions still play a very small role, reflecting the shallowness of the capital market. As businesses have limited options in their financing, except through bank loans, loan pricing becomes inflexible as banks have a stronger bargaining position.

The other obstacle for lowering lending rates is symmetric information that is being faced by banks regarding the financial reports of their corporate clients.

Because the quality of financial reports of Indonesian companies generally lack credibility and transparency, it is difficult for banks to make a proper analysis, so they resort to the availability of adequate collateral in making loan decisions. The unreliability of corporate information becomes risk premium that is built up in their interest rate decision.

BI has tried to curb upward pressure on lending rates when in September 2009 it asked 14 largest banks to "cap" their deposit rates. The move managed to lower deposit rates slightly, but then there were no tangible pressures for banks to cut their lending rates. Lending rates remain high.

This is because the supply and demand dynamics of the deposits are different than those of loans. In the last several years, in terms of percentage of GDP, while loan increased, bank deposits declined.

This is because depositors have more alternatives to keep their money beside bank deposit, like equities, government bonds and fund management. Fierce competition to lure depositor's money among banks, rule out the chance to reduce their lending rates.

In the long term, efforts to lower lending rates would be tied to the success of the BI monetary policy in managing inflation expectation, and efforts of the government to deepen capital market, and to improve regulatory frameworks regarding the credibility and transparency of the Indonesian corporate financial reporting. Until these efforts produce results, bank lending rates will remain high.

[The writer is an economist.]